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15 Jul 2010
HMRC has claimed there were "material irregularities" when votes were counted at the recent Portsmouth FC company voluntary arrangement (CVA) ballot, in a court submission filed today.
The tax office said it was "unfairly prejudiced" in the voting process of the CVA, set up by administrators.
HMRC filed an appeal against the CVA at the High Court today on the grounds that: "the interests of HMRC have been or will be unfairly prejudiced" by the decision to reduce its voting rights.
Voting rights are distributed based on the level of debt owed to each creditor.
A CVA needs 75% of creditors, by value of their debt, to be approved. HMRC is owed approximately £37m by Portsmouth FC, representing about 25% of the total CVA vote.
However, its voting right was reduced to reflect just £24m.
Had HMRC been given its full vote it could have blocked the CVA. HMRC had voted against the CVA, which will see creditors receiving approximately 20p in the pound over five years.
The CVA is now frozen until a decision on the appeal has been made.
The administrators were unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
Earlier today, they said if HMRC's appeal failed they would pursue it for losses which could amount to "millions".
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Visitor comments Add your comment
Pay up Pompey
Good luck to HMRC - I am sick and tired of clubs wriggling out of paying millions of pounds of debt via the CVA route. Portsmouth achieved success by spending well beyond their means and have not been punished to anything like the degree they should have. The reward for well-run clubs should be severe penalties for badly-run clubs like Portsmouth.
Posted by: Gary Hurst, 16 Jul 2010 | 00:00
CVA Result
There are £85 million unsecured creditors and the votes are as follows.
In favour of a CVA - £100m
Against £24m
What could possibly be wrong?
Posted by: Dave, 16 Jul 2010 | 00:00
Pay up Pompey
Good luck to HMRC - I am sick and tired of clubs wriggling out of paying millions of pounds of debt via the CVA route. Portsmouth achieved success by spending well beyond their means and have not been punished to anything like the degree they should have. The reward for well-run clubs should be severe penalties for badly-run clubs like Portsmouth.
Posted by: Gary Hurst, 16 Jul 2010 | 00:00
Could anything be wrong?
Yes, Dave, that's quite an entertaining question - what could possibly be wrong?
I suppose we'll find out when the case unfolds.
On the Portsmouth fans message boards (The News, Truebluearmy.com, Fratton Faithful) there are dozens of interesting suggestions as to what could "possibly be wrong".
Allegedly.
Posted by: Ernest Howlett, 16 Jul 2010 | 00:00