Quinky totally take your point about the way HMRC treat things and it could be used as a good benchmark, however the salary cap submissions and CT submissions don’t need to reconcile.

On the trips to the ME as you’ve pointed out by having a couple of notional training sessions (soft skills) thrown in its very easy to have a jolly classed as tax deductible.

Out of interest how are image rights treated under the salary cap?

Indeed, Fursty. I'm no fan of much of HMRC's workings, but it would seem to be a thoroughly thought out methodology and most importantly, one that's hard to challenge but relatively clear.

I think image rights are dependent on whether they "belong" to the club or the player. Obviously a player can control their own, and I'd say that's something that agents and clubs may use in negotiations. But I seem to recall that in the days when professionalism was being brought in, there was the guideline that if a player earned money from images or appearances whilst wearing their kit, it counted as rugby related earnings; if not (such as Personal Appearances, after-dinner speaking etc) then it wasn't. Maybe that's still a consideration? Similarly, if the club had a veto on any work that a player could take up, logic suggests that it must somehow affect the salary cap if not being included in it - otherwise the club could simply arrange for remuneration through such a channel and thereby bypass the cap restrictions.


These are just my thoughts of course. I have no knowledge of the inner workings of club finances and if/how they can circumvent the cap. I can think of plenty of ways in which at first sight they could get around it, but of course there may be preventions in place to safeguard against any of these. At the same time, whilst many ways would be easy to detect, it must also be said that a good accountant will be able to find ways which are harder or seemingly impossible to detect. Some ways may even be legitimate - such as the players being given better tax planning advice, very generous pension schemes, future career opportunities etc.