‘Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo‘. (H.G. Wells)
There goes another kidney machine. It appears that former Celtic players Neil Lennon and John Hartson are not as keen on keeping hospitals and schools open as the supporters of the club they represent. Neil Lennon, now the Celtic manager, is being chased for legal costs after losing more than £100,000 in a tax scheme and failing to get his cash back. Experts say the Celtic manager and his fellow investors could face a bill of up to £20 million after a judge threw out their lawsuit.
It seems Lennon put £200,000 into two investment schemes in 2003, when he was earning £30,000 a week at Celtic. It appears he wasn’t alone at Celtic using this tax scheme. Former team mate John Hartson also invested in this scheme which HMRC said was against tax rules. Both ended up losing large sums of money. Both seem inclined to set moral standards for others that they do not hold.
Both Lennon and Hartson have had pops at Rangers over their use of the legal EBTs scheme in recent times and it is this breath-taking hypocrisy which must leave the rest of the SPL clubs who followed Celtic to the edge of oblivion all looking rather foolish. Pay your taxes indeed. Dundee United’s Mike Barile, a representative from United Supporters Direct stated in February “No we don’t need Rangers. We only need clubs who pay their taxes.” How red will his neck be when his team next face Neil Lennon’s team? No new statement from Mike expected anytime soon.
The same silence from the Celtic support over their manager and ex player using tax schemes is also deafening. These fans were the loudest in stating Rangers use of the legal EBT scheme was closing hospitals and schools and Rangers owed every man, woman and child in Scotland twenty pounds.
It must be hugely embarrassing for the Celtic fans that their manger is now linked in with the terms tax scheme, and especially the law firm Collyer Bristow. Collyer Bristow were one of the defendants in the lawsuit after acting as lawyers for one of the investment companies, and are now preparing to try to claim back their costs from the investors. This is the law firm who advised Craig Whyte, the former Rangers owner, on his catastrophic takeover of Rangers, a takeover that is now the subject of a criminal investigation. Collyer Bristow are now pursuing their coach Neil Lennon for costs relating to the tax case. It seems it is easier for Neil Lennon to mouth off about principles than to live up to them.
There indeed goes another kidney machine.
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This ‘author’ has named 2 people connected to Celtic who have dodged paying tax. Maybe didn’t have the time to type the names of all the people connected to Rangers who dodged paying tax. How many kidney machines could’ve been bought if Rangers (yes, not the individuals but Rangers the club) paid their taxes? Cyberted, I await your answer. Celtic Football Club, 1888-present and beyond.
What nonsense.
First, how can you face a bill for 20 million when you only invested 200,000?
Second, and I am only speaking from my knowledge of US tax law, if you lose money in an investment, you can LEGALLY write it off against your taxes.
Cyberted appears to be purposely short on details as those would probably reveal that Neil went to court in an effort to recoup funds lost through poor or fraudulent advice.
Neil may be guilty of being gullible or a poor money manager, but this hardly puts him in the class of the shamed, disgraced, and soon to be defunct Rangers.
You can face such a bill due to the legal costs required in foolishly trying to get the money you lost back. The £20m is across all parties, no-one is saying Lennon has a £20m bill.
Your comments on tax law show you have failed to understand what Lennon was involved in, this wasn’t a loss he was offsetting it was an aggressive tax avoidance scheme, the basics of which were that a company purporting to be involved in new technology was set up, attracting tax breaks for investors, £200k was paid in and a future tax relief of £500k was gained. This may have been ok had the company not simply been set up to churn money around and then pay it back without being involved in any technological research whatsoever.
The fact is, and it tastes better after the outcome of the first tier tax tribunal, Lennon was involved in a tax avoidance scheme yet saw fit to criticise Rangers lawful scheme.
Cyberted –
I thought you would haven given up on your writing career after making a ‘James hunt’ I yourself last time around !
You are a sad,biased,bitter wee man !
Next you will be saying that Lennon deserved to have bullets sent to him or attacked on numerous occassions !
You sad and strange little man.
We are all laughing at you. Enjoy Div 3.
You’ve got some cajoés comming out with the ‘kidney machine’ toss!
Coming from a supporter whos now dead club deducted National Insurance contributions from ALL their emplyees, players, ground staff, coaching staff, office staff, EVERYBODY.
AND TROUSERED THE CASH!!
Trousered it to pay Jelavic a kings ranson with money destined to childrens hospitals, cancer treatments, hospices, old folks homes, paramedics, nurses……etc.
DIGNITY?
Dispicable more like!!!
SHAME?
YOU HAVE NONE!
I could barely read the whole article due to the tears of laughter running down my face!
If this is the best that they can come up with against Celtic then god help them
I blame the state schools!!! 🙂
Enjoy trying to find PEETURHEED on yer sat nav today son it’s north east of Pilladelphia if that’s a help
Hail Hail mintys goin to jail
this website has more huns writing for it than the bloody daily record, it really shows.
What he is deliberately missing is that Rangers avoided tax to gain a financial ADVANTAGE over the rest of the league. When they started that scheme, the SPL was no longer a sport, it was fixed for them, by them, with help from the SFA and the media. What Lennon and Hartson have been involved in is NOTHING to do with celtic. They have used this scheme to benefit THEMSELVES, not the club.
Sure, that wont stop the huns from frothing at the mouth over this, but rest assured you vultures in the media, nothings going to happen to celtic. They havnt done anything wrong.
Ha ha ha ha ha , what a funny article, i agree with you in principle, no-one should be dodging taxes, but i wonder just how many kidney machine that the £14m tax case and the £75m tax case tha FC Corruption face.No moral high-ground there as Lennon and Hartson had already paid taxes on their earnings, RFC just tried to doge them all together
So … Rangers had NO case to answer for with the HMRC and with the SPL.
The HMRC appeal aside (which is effectively a paper exercise) Rangers have been exonerated of any financial wrongdoing.
Leaving Lennon and colleagues as the real tax-dodgers.
Also noteworthy that Celtic actually LOST a major VAT tax case against the HMRC in 1997, where they were trying to evade payments on tickets sales.
This is all a matter fo record.
The issues of who paid the Keane players, and whether that payment scheme (from their millionaire figurehead) was “disclosed” to the SPL is also an interesting issue.
Celtic FC — the club that was found guilty of tax evasion, and run by a tax-avoiding bigot.
I´ll bet all the dhims who wrote on this Topic must be Feeling Kind of foolish now!!
Dont let the Facts get in the way of a good lie. Dhims always fall down when it Comes to Facts.
Why dont you ask your own Club about all the dodgy film companies that the septic Players are involved in.. lots of tax dodging going on there.
Sorry but can the “oh so just” explain why these Celtc players,management and chief exec used TAX reduction methods on “paid taxes” ??
What “tax” would they be avoiding by using these fake movie schemes, i mean if you put in £20k you got £40k Tax BENEFIT
Also the Juniniho EBT wasn’t declared at all to the SPL – remember it isn’t about the tax it’s about the declaration.
Just shows how good the celtc family are at covering up wrongdoings though doesn’t it ?