Interesting times ahead re-NRL recruitment. www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 5974123983

Interesting times ahead re-NRL recruitment. www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 5974123983

very interesting news. It may make clubs invest further in nurturing youth if the big aussie stars will not come as it is not worth it.

however i feel all tax lawyers and accountants will find a way round it

Excellent news.

Sounds like their freeloading days are over.

Agreed. In an Ideal world to help SL and the national team grow we wouldn't have any imports. But which club can afford to take that stance? If Heatherington said one day 'This club will no longer buy in NRL players and will solely forcus on youth development' , we would have thrown our 4 SL titles down the drain to set that benchmark. Before now it couldn't happen. Hopefully no lopeholes will be found, and clubs will stop. And you know what I honestly think the standard of rugby league in this competition will start to grow.

In a way this is excellent news. This may just pave the way for what has already been said, but fir clubs to rely on bringing youth through. Also it may mean in the future that only the best Aussies come to Super League

I think quite a lot of people would like to hope this means that the days of lots of sh*t overseas players filling out teams are over, and only the best will now appear in small numbers. I can see it working the opposite way, with average players coming over (because we won't be able to afford the better players) and having no incentive to go home at all. In 10 years time we could have our entire national team made up of "qualified by residence" crap antipodeans.

Entirely agree with you. That's all I can read into it too.

Can anyone find a UK link confirming they have actually successfully changed this regulation?

We have known this for a while and now it would seem UK RL clubs are all going to get hit with large tax bills (some very large) if the RL has lost it's case. I suspect ours could be a very large one and the only club that is safe is Wakefield, as they have already paid (well Sir Rodney paid it) their bill. I assume that Crusaders are trying to worm their way out of theirs through administration, but given the way HMRC have been very hard nosed about this whole thing I am not sure they will simple let this go under a phoenix deal!

I think this might put some clubs in a very difficult financial position and some clubs that I would be worried about would be Bradford, Castleford (although they have a new sugar daddy, so he might pay it), London and possibly Wigan!

Some RL clubs are going to get a nice Christmas present from HMRC... a large bill and maybe some winding up orders for Easter!

'Beavis has sought assurances from the club that they will find a way to keep O'Donnell's earnings at the level first negotiated or pay the difference if he is hit by the new tax law as expected.'

'O'Donnell's manager Wayne Beavis has already contacted Huddersfield to discuss potential upgrades to his existing four-year deal.'

I think the answer will be along the lines of slim to no chance mate!

The attraction to all professional sporting clubs is that it does not cost them anything and in RL, the salary cap is based on gross payments and values so the money it was costing them did change (other than now they are having to pay some of it back) and it does not break the cap, so everyone was happy with the arrangement.

I think the bigger SL clubs might push for the cap to increase now as we may face the opposite problem, with out best players (although a small number relatively) going the other way!

Here's the link.
[urlhttp://www.pensionsworld.co.uk/pw/article/clampdown-on-high-earners-efrbs-and-ebts-1237401[/url

Got to say... I'm on side with you two on this one. (Yes... REALLY!)

I think it will have the exact opposite effect to what most seem to be hoping.

If you can't come for the tax break and to top up the pension fund, let's be honest... why would you come? To challenge yourself against the best players? For our relaxed and friendly attitude towards foreigners? For our wonderful climate? For the cheap cost of living?

IMO this will just mean that SL will attract the players that are not good enough to get the NRL status they're after, and have never shown signs of making the Origin/Roos squad, so really have nothing to lose by moving over here (the calibre of a certain B. Delaney springs to mind! Wait.. that's too obvious.... let's call him... "Brett D."icon_wink.gif

Could not agree more.

I shouldn't worry about tax law changes for higher bands. It won't affect your benefits.

The benefits of being rich and popular. Are you sure ?

As far as I can see this will generate tax charges going forward but not retrospectively.

It will be down to the players and their agents to try and negotiate new deals so the net pay remains the same.

Wasn't Wakefield's tax liability a disputed VAT one rather than PAYE?

Does this make O'Donnell Butthead?

The first tax bill was VAT related I understand, which they cleared, and the most recent one was for some tax/NI liabilities arising from off-shore/image rights payments to overseas players. This is when it gets beyond me because as I understand it, they paid HMRC because they may of may not have to pay this money in the long term because their are going to be legal challenges about this in the foreseeable future, so as such they might get this money back, but you can't not pay them until you can prove you don't need to pay them. I understand that Wakefield are going to be the first of many in SL and that Wakefield's exposure had been one of the smallest!

This is why I was asking about confirmation of that legal issue, in future, it would appear that the regulations do now prevent it as you say.

Anybody?

There are (or were) two separate arguments going on with HMRC - one about the use of image rights payments as a tax mitigation measure and another about offshore pension payments.

Last I heard, the clubs were trying to get the RFL to strike a sport-wide deal with HMRC on image rights in much the same way Premier Rugby has in Union. It's entirely possible HMRC will look for a backdated settlement on image rights which is what may have been done with Wakefield.

This change to the rules governing pension payments is entirely separate to that and will stop clubs making tax free contributions into offshore pension funds by taxing that income on the way into the fund.

Will that be retrospective?

Thank god the Rhinos signed Ben Cross and Weller Hauraki just in time before the tax law changes. I'd hate to think they'd both have to be replaced by average NRL players instead.

I actually chuckled at that one Keith. I think I'm starting to get you.

I keep forgetting you are relatively new... that is how well you have fitted in already!

Keith may well be Agent Provocateur (AP) or may just be someone equally as clever, entertaining and general pain in the ariss troll, as he was!

pfffttt.

we're so indistinguishable as posters.

He sounds like my sort of guy!