The U.K.'s highest court will hear a case this week to decide whether a "scheme that offered loans" to Scottish Premiership side Rangers footballers "broke tax laws," according to Croft & Houlder of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The Supreme Court case, which begins on Wednesday, centers on the club's "use of employee benefit trusts to pay players and staff in loans" from '01-09. U.K. tax authority HMRC said that it missed out on £46.2M "because the club used payments to trusts in Jersey to fund tax-free loans to Rangers' employees." The two-day hearing is the culmination of a "long-running court dispute" that began in '12. The hearing will "examine an appeal arising from the Scottish Court of Session," which in Nov. '15 sided with HMRC. The three Scottish judges decided that the payments to the trusts "should be regarded as a payment of earnings and subject to income tax." The ruling "could also affect thousands of similar schemes, used by companies to put money into a trust for top employees." The total value of HMRC's Rangers claim, including interest, totaled £72M in '15, according to BDO, the liquidator of the former Rangers (FT, 3/15).
