Has anyone else considered that Administration has come about so quickly for one reason? Craig Whyte has asked HMRC to accept a deal - knowing for certain that Rangers could not win the Tax Case - and HMRC have refused to deal, therefore there was no other option but to take the hit at this time and try to offset future problems by any means necessary, even desperate options such as this, more in hope than belief. Does that sound ridiculous?
No, but how could it work? Rangers go into administration and win the HMRC case. HMRC are going to appeal anyway so they just wait until Rangers come out of administration. If Rangers lose the HMRC case then they're £75m+ in debt and will have to call in the receivers. I don't see how Rangers can survive.
http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/rangers-administration-cva-nae-chance/ This bloke seems to know his stuff.
Not in the least ridiculous Dev, I believe there is more to this than meets the eye, though i also believe Whyte got in way over his head on this but always had this as a plan, should the worst happen. I still think he, personally, will make money in the long run. Maybe that sounds contradictory.
I genuinely think he's in over his head and although I believe he may have had a plan when he took over, i think an old military axiom springs to mind. "No plan of action ever survives first contact". I don't think he had a plan B and is flying by the seat of his pants.
I am struggling with the preferred creditor stuff. The Huns are contesting the bill.......it is still a bill. They must be the preferred creditor, shirley? Ach, either way, they are dead Huns walking.
I think a lot depends on how Whyte had set up Rangers and his assets. His personal money will be bomb proof. Rangers wealth, ie ground, Murray Park etc will probably be protected somehow, away from the club itself. Whatever that leaves for creditors and HMRC remains to be seen. However, when Whyte was disqualified from being a director, even although he had moved his business' money away from his company and creditors, the courts managed to recover about half what was owed, according to that Taigy Fenian filled organisation the BBC.
Excellent post ST and thanks for this. I envisaged that HMRC would have the final say in whether not Rangers would succeed in this voluntary action (which would minimize the damage to the club), dependant upon a number of factors but was unsure of just what all of these factors were. They have, however, been set out very clearly here as have the various scenarios as yet to come to light. This is the best explanation I've heard or read yet of the situation.
Its all very well trying to sift through the financial tea-leaves here and accurately discern what is currently going on behind the scenes at both rangers and hmrc, and of course what the future will bring. However, if I was a concerned rangers fan , what I would really want to know is why does craig whyte have eyes that are different sizes from each other ?
anyone else think that whyte will come out of this with his money, then pay hmrc a % of the debt. Murray then buys the club back for 2 quid. so whyte not only gets his money back he doubles his original investment.