Taxman launches his appeal

So, we now know that HMRC have blocked our attempts to come out of admin by launching their appeal against the CVA agreement that was agreed, in principle, by the majority of creditors.

A spokesman for HMRC said: 'HMRC can confirm that it has made an application to the High Court that the decision of creditors of Portsmouth City Football Club Ltd (In Administration taken at a meeting on 17 June 2010 approving a Company Voluntary Arrangement in a Proposal dated 28 May 2010 should be revoked or suspended under s. 6 (1) (a) and/or (b) of the Insolvency Act 1986 on the grounds that: (a) The interests of HMRC have been or will be unfairly prejudiced by the taking of that decision; and (b) There were material irregularities in the way in which the votes of creditors were counted at that meeting.

'HMRC can further confirm that it has also appealed to the court under Rule 1.17 of the Insolvency Rules against the Chairman's decision to refuse to allow HMRC to vote in accordance with claims totalling £13,293,651.72 submitted at the meeting.'

As I am sure we all know HMRC believes that they have a bigger claim than the amount that they would be getting, albeit 20p in the £ of it, so they want a larger amount taken into account: 'HMRC feel we have been or will be unfairly prejudiced by the decision to accept the CVA, because we believe there were material irregularities in the way in which the votes of creditors were counted at the creditor meeting and because, to our knowledge, the full amount of our claim should have been admitted for voting purposes.'

They also say that they are working for the fairness of the creditors that fail outside of the football industry - which whilst I understand this, it is unfair that football creditors get the whole lot and everyone else does not, but lets face it the vast majority agreed to the proposal: 'we are acting in the interests of all those creditors who are not in the football industry. We don't think it's right that they are offered 20p in the pound against full repayment all others. Also we cannot agree with the striking out of £13million of debt which seriously undermined our ability to challenge the CVA.'

It is now down to HMRC to prove that they are actually owed what they claim they are owed - this appeal 'might' not be heard until October or November, so this of course leaves us in limbo in the meantime as the transfer embargo on us will almost certainly be kept in place so recruitment plans are in tatters...

'Should' HMRC fail in this appeal then they could be faced with a MASSIVE compensation bill from Pompey if this appeal leads to the potential sale of the club falling through or being delayed.

Whilst none of us are happy with the taxman, and whilst they are the bad guys at the moment we do have to remember that circumstances, long before they came on the scene, were the issues that got us into the trouble that we were in in the first place so it is important that we do not lose sight of that.

Ah well, so we play more of the waiting game - which sucks!

PLAY UP POMPEY!

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