Hearts confident of delivering wages after keeping taxman at bay once more

By DARREN JOHNSTONE
Published on Wednesday 15 February 2012 00:00

HEARTS have settled their outstanding tax bill and officials are confident that players’ wages will be paid into their accounts on time tomorrow.

The Tynecastle club yesterday announced that it had settled the case after Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) had brought a winding-up order against Hearts for a debt thought to be around £150,000. It is the fifth time in recent years that the Gorgie club have faced legal action over over unpaid tax, with a £500,000 bill paid late last year to fend off a winding-up order. Other similar orders were served in 2009 and 2010.

The latest winding-up petition was presented to the Court of Session by the Advocate General for Scotland on 27 January and published on 7 February, with HMRC giving the Edinburgh club eight days to pay.

With that issue now resolved, the players will be waiting with bated breath to discover if their wages will indeed arrive on time tomorrow.

Hearts were charged with ‘failing to behave with the utmost good faith to the SPL’ after failing to pay the players on time for the fourth successive month in January, with the earnings arriving a day late. However, the SPL decided to take no action after hearing evidence from the Edinburgh club.

Now Hearts director Sergejus Fedotovas has indicated that the players’ wages should be paid on time tomorrow.

Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov’s right-hand man insists he believes the funding is in place to pay the players.

“We have paid the tax bill and this has all been resolved. I don’t have any reason to be worried (that the wages won’t be paid on time),” he said.

“There were problems in the past but they were all sorted.

“Nobody can give you guarantees that you are going to prosper in the future or if players are not going to get injured.

We live in a natural world with a natural business and we want to improve and make it better.”

Taken from the Scotsman