| The Fir Park outfit will have to pay the taxman hundreds of thousands of pounds before being able to agree the necessary terms with the club’s other creditors that would enable the Steelmen to come out of administration.
There had been fears that Dundee, who moved into voluntary administration largely as a result of a £750,000 tax bill owed to the Inland Revenue, might suffer in the same way.
However, administrator Tom Burton today said that the Enterprise Act, which came into being in 2002, was the deciding factor.
A spokesman for Mr Burton explained that Motherwell crashed in April, 2002, shortly before the act abolished the preferential status of tax authorities in company insolvencies. The Inland Revenue, therefore, is entitled to the several hundred thousand pounds owed by the club before any other creditors can be paid. Motherwell contested the issue in the Court of Session, but lost.
Dundee’s move into administration came after the act, meaning that the club can agree repayment terms with all of its creditors on an equal footing, without first of all having to pay anyone in full. |
