www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/ap ... e-payments could be a lot of short term pain, but along with the stricter visa regulations it could lead to a lot of long term gains. it could also open up a whole can of backdated salary cap related issues if clubs get hit with 6 figure tax bills.

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/ap ... e-payments could be a lot of short term pain, but along with the stricter visa regulations it could lead to a lot of long term gains. it could also open up a whole can of backdated salary cap related issues if clubs get hit with 6 figure tax bills.

It'd be interesting to speculate on the identity of the 4 clubs apparently NOT involved in this, but Obergruppenfuhrer mintball would have us shot if we did

Celtic and Catalan would be 50% of them

Reminds me of the Blackadder quote about the great universities, Oxford, Cambridge and Hull

And the obvious reply - you're right Leeds is a terrible team!!!!

yeah, oxfords a tip

this might shed some light on Warrington's attempts to flog Gleeson to get some cash in.

My bet is CC, Catalans (they wouldn't be involved with British tax authorities anyway), Salford and possibly Wakey or Quins. We shall see!

One of the 4 has to be Wigan, surely! We have been told countless times by their fans that their club dont use these loopholes, because the honest, Maurice Lindsay and Wigan rugby's biggest supporter, Dave Whelan told them so.

Are image right calculated in the salary cap ?

I suppose you could argue that a players salary is for his training and 80 mins (or less!!) on a match day, while his image rights are a seperate issue. If a club does not pay for image rights, could players get together and sell their own merchanise as a seperate entity to the work they do for the club.

I am sure as one loophole is closed some clever 2@ will find another, the MP's do.

Warrington have been using this sytem for a long time. The difference between Warrington and one other club is they declare it to the RFL salary cap auditor.

PS

I'm not sure how the clubs are liable for any payments. I thought every player was self-employed and as such the club had no tax liabilities.

Yes.

You cannot be deemed to be self employed with one principle employer such as a rugby club. All players are contracted employees of their particular club

As ER points out, players are salaried employees of their clubs. Presumably if HMRC (not the "Inland Revenue", good to see the Grauniad up to date as ever) believe the payments should have made after deduction of UK tax, then the clubs as employers are liable for the lost PAYE and National Insurance plus interest and potentially penalties?

As far as I am aware Wales is subject to the same tax laws as the rest of th UK, From what I read non of the clubs have broken any rules Tax or RL salary cap, its just that the rules have been chalanged by HMRC to screw yet more cash out of people & it would not suprise me if they try & make it retrospective they seem to be a law unto themself. They did it ten years ago when they came after clubs for tax & national insurance that overseas (self employed)players had not paid & returned home owing cash, My company got stung as they had to pay up because HMRC were to lazy to go after contracters who have disapeared abroad. I have dealings with them a lot & I just wonder if realise who they are supposed to work for as the are not doing Britsh companys any good at all & there just seems no way to challenge them.

Wouldn't this be against "the spirit of the cap"?

Thats class

Tax avoidance, I don't see how.

More pertrinent, is the impact on current contracts that utilise this. If contracts have to add PAYE into them,, surely that will be applicable to th cap?

Avoidance - or evasion?

If it's evasion, then there will be twitchy bum time at a lot of SL clubs given how far back HMRC can go to recover underpaid PAYE and NIC.

Evasion is a tad strong for me. How can it be evasion? It was a loophole that has been taken advantage of, it was as if they have deliberately not paid tax, now that would be my definition of evasion.

I can't see this being unique to RL either, so I would imagine there are intreresting times ahead generally.

They = Catalans, I was bought up in an era when sports clubs were always referred to in the plural - don't know when all this Yankee nonsense started!!

Wigan may be one of the four not involved.
Under Whelan's ownership he would not allow the club to pay image rights or enter into Player Benifit Trusts.
I've heard that said many times at meetings when he was the owner and it was well known other clubs were operating these systems.