Rangers tax case appeal judgement to be issued on Wednesday

The Judiciary of Scotland has announced that the appeal judgement will be available online by lunchtime.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs launched a second appeal against earlier court decisions on payments made by former Rangers owner Sir David Murray's group of companies, including the now liquidated Ibrox outfit. The decision on the so-called "big tax case" will have no impact on the current regime at Rangers.

In July 2014, a judge largely dismissed HRMC's first appeal against a first-tier tribunal (FTT) majority verdict which had decreed that a £46.2million tax demand on Murray's company, most of which referred to oldco Rangers, be ''reduced substantially''.

The victory was qualified as Lord Doherty referred an unknown number of termination payments and five ''guaranteed bonus'' payments back to the original tribunal but Murray International Holdings claimed it left it with a "negligible tax liability''.

The Murray group contends that the payments - made through the now outlawed Employee Benefit Trusts from 2001 to 2010 - were loans and not taxable income.

A statement on the Judiciary website read: "The judgment in the appeal to the Court of Session by the Advocate General for Scotland v Murray Group Holdings and others ("the Rangers tax case") will be published tomorrow, Wednesday 4 November 2015.

"A press summary of the judgment will be issued here at 10.30am, before the full opinion of the court is published on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website at 12 noon."

Murray sold his majority stake in Rangers to Craig Whyte in May 2011 and the club was consigned to liquidation 13 months later over separate debts, before being relaunched as a new company.