Post by QPR Report on Sept 2, 2009 6:11:35 GMT
Guardian/Matt Scott
Bung culture faces new threat from HMRC
• HMRC has won legal battle to access offshore accounts
• Unpaid taxes the major concern of Revenue
Football agents and managers tempted to allow bungs to motivate their transfer-window activities have been taking a bigger risk than ever after new powers were made available to HM Revenue & Customs.
HMRC won a legal battle last month which resulted in 300 banks being obliged to hand over details of offshore accounts to tax inspectors. Now the offshore accounts belonging to managers and middlemen will be specifically targeted by the taxman.
Rather than accessing accounts at random, HMRC conducts a risk analysis of all professions and individuals, with those involved in the multi-million-pound football-transfer industry particularly falling under the spotlight.
Previous suspicions of a "bung" culture prompted police to investigate a number of transfers. That investigation, seeking to issue a strong deterrent message, has since been handed over to HMRC and is still ongoing.
But HMRC's principal concern under the new regime is the recovery of unpaid taxes, and past bung-takers might have an opportunity to come clean. Confessing to having squirrelled the proceeds of transfers in offshore jurisdictions will lead to a requirement to repay up to 20 years in back taxes, with interest and penalties of up to 20%.
But those found to have deliberately avoided paying their dues are required to repay the back tax, plus interest and a penalty of up to 100% of what has been evaded. The most serious offenders uncovered by the HMRC's new powers can face potential custodial sentences for false accounting.
Spurs keep Pompey habit
Executives of rival Premier League clubs have privately voiced suspicions that notwithstanding the former Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp being in charge at Tottenham, there is more to the two clubs' relationship than meets the eye.
No one has made a formal complaint and no one has any proof of collusion. But the dizzying amount of transfer activity between the clubs this summer, which has seen Peter Crouch and Niko Kranjcar swap sides with Kevin-Prince Boateng and Jamie O'Hara, will give them more to talk about. Those transfers continued a trend of at least one player swapping one for the other in each of the past three seasons. Other expected deals, such as David James to Spurs, fell through, but there was dialogue between the clubs.
The deals are reported to be worth a combined £15m but only Spurs and Pompey know precisely their value – although any cash that has changed hands will have passed through the Football Association. Any supposed mutually beneficial links are unlikely to have been affected by Sulaiman al‑Fahim's recent takeover: the former owner, Alexandre Gaydamak, and the chief executive, Peter Storrie, remain on the Fratton Park board.
Sack might help the stats
Now that the transfer window is out of the way it is managerial rather than playing personnel clubs struggling for results will look to change. Chairmen may be galvanised into action by the findings of a report by the International Center for Sport Studies in Switzerland. It found a clear link between sackings and an upturn in results. "New arrivals gained, on average, 36% more points than the coaches they replaced," it claimed. "An improvement (at least 0.2 points per match more on average) was recorded in 60% of cases." ...
ESPN looks to Europa
ESPN has picked up the rights to Europa League football in a three-year deal to show Uefa's junior club competition. It can show 25 games a season exclusively but only up to the first leg of the semi-final. The rights to the second leg and the final lie with Five.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/sep/02/bungs-inland-revenue-offshore-banking
Bung culture faces new threat from HMRC
• HMRC has won legal battle to access offshore accounts
• Unpaid taxes the major concern of Revenue
Football agents and managers tempted to allow bungs to motivate their transfer-window activities have been taking a bigger risk than ever after new powers were made available to HM Revenue & Customs.
HMRC won a legal battle last month which resulted in 300 banks being obliged to hand over details of offshore accounts to tax inspectors. Now the offshore accounts belonging to managers and middlemen will be specifically targeted by the taxman.
Rather than accessing accounts at random, HMRC conducts a risk analysis of all professions and individuals, with those involved in the multi-million-pound football-transfer industry particularly falling under the spotlight.
Previous suspicions of a "bung" culture prompted police to investigate a number of transfers. That investigation, seeking to issue a strong deterrent message, has since been handed over to HMRC and is still ongoing.
But HMRC's principal concern under the new regime is the recovery of unpaid taxes, and past bung-takers might have an opportunity to come clean. Confessing to having squirrelled the proceeds of transfers in offshore jurisdictions will lead to a requirement to repay up to 20 years in back taxes, with interest and penalties of up to 20%.
But those found to have deliberately avoided paying their dues are required to repay the back tax, plus interest and a penalty of up to 100% of what has been evaded. The most serious offenders uncovered by the HMRC's new powers can face potential custodial sentences for false accounting.
Spurs keep Pompey habit
Executives of rival Premier League clubs have privately voiced suspicions that notwithstanding the former Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp being in charge at Tottenham, there is more to the two clubs' relationship than meets the eye.
No one has made a formal complaint and no one has any proof of collusion. But the dizzying amount of transfer activity between the clubs this summer, which has seen Peter Crouch and Niko Kranjcar swap sides with Kevin-Prince Boateng and Jamie O'Hara, will give them more to talk about. Those transfers continued a trend of at least one player swapping one for the other in each of the past three seasons. Other expected deals, such as David James to Spurs, fell through, but there was dialogue between the clubs.
The deals are reported to be worth a combined £15m but only Spurs and Pompey know precisely their value – although any cash that has changed hands will have passed through the Football Association. Any supposed mutually beneficial links are unlikely to have been affected by Sulaiman al‑Fahim's recent takeover: the former owner, Alexandre Gaydamak, and the chief executive, Peter Storrie, remain on the Fratton Park board.
Sack might help the stats
Now that the transfer window is out of the way it is managerial rather than playing personnel clubs struggling for results will look to change. Chairmen may be galvanised into action by the findings of a report by the International Center for Sport Studies in Switzerland. It found a clear link between sackings and an upturn in results. "New arrivals gained, on average, 36% more points than the coaches they replaced," it claimed. "An improvement (at least 0.2 points per match more on average) was recorded in 60% of cases." ...
ESPN looks to Europa
ESPN has picked up the rights to Europa League football in a three-year deal to show Uefa's junior club competition. It can show 25 games a season exclusively but only up to the first leg of the semi-final. The rights to the second leg and the final lie with Five.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/sep/02/bungs-inland-revenue-offshore-banking