Hull City: Tigers at centre of £2m tax probe

Hull City are under investigation by the taxman after discrepancies of up to £2 million were discovered in the Premier League club’s finances.
The Tigers, who were last night beaten 2-0 at table-topping Arsenal and whose owner is in the middle of a bitter dispute with a disgruntled section of fans, disclose the existence of the probe by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in their latest set of financial accounts.

SportsDirect News can reveal the enquiry has been running for several months and Hull – who owner Assam Allam wants to rename “Hull Tigers” – has set aside almost £500,000 to meet the HMRC claim.
“We can’t comment specifically on individual cases,” said a spokesman for HMRC. “It’s common knowledge that we periodically take a close look at the football industry and our enquiries mean we have dealings with a number of individuals and clubs.”


The disclosure is made on page 14 of the club’s latest set of financial accounts, dated 28 November, but only released by Companies House yesterday. The amount owed to HMRC is made under the heading  “Provisions for liabilities”.
It’s known that the taxman is currently looking at a wide range of activities undertaken by clubs, where players have received direct financial rewards and benefits in-kind.

Although precise details of the Hull case are not in the public domain, typically the sort of perks that are attracting the Revenue’s attention include first-class flights, holidays, company cars, use of club credit cards, health care and private security.
There's no suggestion wrong has been involved in anything that's illegal. But it's known that inspectors are  looking at whether clubs like Hull have declared tax on payments made to players for appearances on the football clubs’ own TV stations.
Nobody at the club was available to comment on the matter.