Premier League clubs clear tax debts

ALL PREMIER LEAGUE CLUBS paid their tax bills, estimated to be £14.4m at the end of the last fiscal year, making them the only professional league to do so.

According to a freedom of information request by Sportingintelligence.com, the Premier League is the only senior UK league out of 14 to completely wipe out its HM Revenues & Customs liabilities.

For the last tax year 2010/11, Football League clubs are estimated to owe £237,052 to the taxman, SPL & Scottish league clubs £161,962 and Northern Ireland Carling Premiership clubs £225,348.

Following Portsmouth FC's administration, the Premiership requested all clubs report on and pay their tax liabilities on a quarterly basis.

The Premier League's head of communications, Dan Johnson, told the publication: "The previous issue was entirely related to Portsmouth. The financial and governance regulations our clubs now operate under mean it is very hard for them to get into arrears. Our clubs are run on very sound accountancy practices that make it very difficult to.

"When combined with our HMRC reporting provision and the welcome new stance of HMRC in ceasing to indulge football, mainly smaller Football League clubs, we think that it is an issue that is sufficiently mitigated."