HUDDERSFIELD Town have tackled the taxman over rules that threatened to leave the club short of cash.

Major credit card companies are withholding money due to football clubs from the sale of season tickets.

The card issuers say they must do this to protect themselves should a club fold during the season.

The move follows fears about the fragile finances of many football clubs.

Town were on the brink of collapse before being rescued by a consortium of businessmen led by Ken Davy, the chairman of Huddersfield Giants rugby league club, last summer.

But the card issuers' move has left football clubs with a cashflow problem.

Customs and Excise are still demanding clubs pay the VAT due on ticket sales at the time the card payment was made - even though clubs may not receive payment for up to a year.

Now, chartered accountancy firm Mazars, which has a Huddersfield office, has argued clubs should be treated like other businesses - and pay VAT only when credit card companies release payments to them.

Sandra McLean, northern region senior VAT manager at Mazars, said she discovered a `huge disparity' between football clubs and other industries, who were not obliged to pay VAT on sales of goods until they had received payment from credit card companies.

"The whole situation seemed completely unfair," she said. "Customs has now agreed to perform an about- turn and allow Huddersfield Town to pay VAT as funds are released to them."

Ms McLean said: "This is a major issue that any clubs issuing season tickets should be aware of. I would advise them to explore every opportunity to get round the problem of credit card companies withholding cash, perhaps by offering fans a discount to pay for season tickets by cheque or cash."

Town finance director Roger Armitage said he was delighted with the decision.

"This has been a big headache for clubs up and down the country, as we rely on the sale of season tickets to help fund cashflow throughout the year," he said. "Mazars investigated whether the same situation was occurring in other industries and discovered that we seemed to be unfairly penalised in this game.

"Now that Customs has changed the decision, we will have more flexibility with our cashflow."