For the benefit of scotzine, this is the original article which was put together by corsica and I on 28 February 2012 and which was posted at the time on rangerstaxcase:
“The Rangers Charity Foundation is a registered charitable trust (SC033287). It is a separate legal entity from RFC plc and is not in administration.
Current trustees are Craig Whyte (Chair), Martin Bain, and Jacqueline Gourlay. John Grieg is honorary president. Mr Whyte and Mr Bain are currently locked in a rather acrimonious legal battle and are therefore unlikely to have met since Mr Bain was dismissed from his post as Chief Executive of Rangers Football Club in May 2011.
All charities must apply funds charitably and only according to their governing instrument which sets out what they can and cannot do and how they can do this. Principally this is set out in the clauses dealing with Objects, Purposes and Powers:
• The OBJECTS of Rangers Charity Foundation are: The Trustees shall hold the Trust Fund and the income of it to pay and apply the same to or for the benefit of or in furtherance of such purposes, objects or institutions charitable in law and in such proportions and manner as the Trustees shall think fit. In exercising their discretion in terms of this Clause the Trustees shall give primary consideration to the wishes of those persons who gift or lend funds to the Foundation but this proviso shall impose no binding obligation on the Trustees.
• The PURPOSES of Rangers Charity Foundation are: Prevention or Relief of Poverty; Advancement of Education; Advancement of Health; Advancement of Citizenship or Community Development; Promotion of Equality and Diversity; Relief of Those in Need By Reason of Age, Ill Health, Disability, Financial Hardship or Other Disadvantage.
The Rangers Charity Foundation announced some time ago that a football match would be held between a team of Rangers Legends and a team of AC Milan Legends in order to raise funds for the Rangers Charity Foundation and the AC Milan Foundation. The match is due to take place in Glasgow on 30 March 2012.
It was confirmed today (28 February 2012) that the match will still take place but that revenue from the match would now be split between Rangers Football Club, the Rangers Charity Foundation and the AC Milan Foundation with the Rangers Charity Foundation foregoing “the majority of its share of the proceeds”. In announcing this, Connal Cochrane, Manager of the Rangers Charity Foundation, said: “The Club and the Rangers fans have been tremendous to the Foundation over the last 10 years and now it is our turn to stand alongside them and Step Up For Rangers. The Rangers Charity Foundation suggested the Club should now benefit from the match and we were delighted that the AC Milan Foundation agreed.”
Is this not, in fact, illegal under charity law as well as being outwith the objects and powers of the Rangers Charity Foundation because it amounts to a donation from the Foundation to a commercial entity which is not charitable and those funds will be applied for purposes which are not charitable?
This situation needs investigating as it raises a number of questions:
1. Have there been any proper/quorate trustee meetings since May 2011? As alluded to in my second paragraph above, I am concerned that there has been no proper governance at the Foundation since May 2011 with only two trustees in effective control of the Foundation.
2. Who is actually administering and organising the match? Is it the football club or the charity? Statements by the charity would suggest that the game has been organised by the charity itself (albeit they may use RFC staff for practical purposes). If so then it would be perfectly reasonable for the charity to deduct costs from income and pay these over to the football club BUT these costs would need to be legitimately incurred and could not be artificially inflated.
3. Has the charity sought specialist advice on taxation issues because of the potential VAT liability or indeed, the potential to reclaim Gift Aid which would allow them to reclaim 25% from HMRC? Events such as are notoriously difficult from a taxation point of view and I am concerned that the charity has not thought through all of the implications.
4. Who made the decision to donate charity funds to RFC plc (a commercial entity and not a body that is charitable in law)? If it was the administrators of RFC plc, RFC plc staff or Foundation staff then they have no legal powers to do so. If it was the trustees then this must be a collective decision (are they even talking to each other?) and cannot be decided by a single trustee.
5. Donation of charitable funds to a commercial company – irrespective of the economic circumstances in which it finds itself – is not charitable in law and is in any case completely against the Objects and Powers of the charity as set out above. Did trustees take legal advice on this?”
I don’t mind others picking this story up and running with it because it needs wider dissemination and investigation, but please let’s not rewrite history about who broke what and when, eh?
alzipratu 