Waqar Shah, Managing Associate in the Tax Disputes and Investigations, has commented on the coverage of HMRC investigations over image rights payments in The Telegraph.
Waqar shared his views on the recent commencement of investigations into rugby clubs and their players' use of image rights companies, following HMRC's successful pursuit of football clubs on this same issue.
"It is worth considering what HMRC look at and what they are keen to avoid is any form of disguised remuneration, [ …] One of the big drivers in the budget last week is HMRC being much stronger on the enforcement and collection of taxes. "It is no surprise they are looking at rugby because they already have a template for how they did it in football clubs. They even had the stats to hand at the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee in 2016 to say over the prior two years they had accounted for over £150 million in relation to image rights and related issues. Since then, HMRC have confirmed accounting for tens of millions of pounds in this area. That's a good return on the investment.”
The full article is available here.