It all comes down to HMRC choosing to make an example of us. But there was always a chance that could happen, and Murray took that risk. Most likely he figured that the EBT loan scheme would be simply closed down at some point, like most other tax loopholes. But we ended up in a situation, where HMRC weren't going to do us any favours by making an early decision - they effectively drove us into liquidation by refusing to settle. Legally we might now have won, but was it a risk worth taking?... we ended up paying the price, one way or another..