Press "Enter" to skip to content

Spain again: Mourinho to appear in Spanish Court over tax fraud allegations

Former Real Madrid coach, Jose Mourinho, is to appear in a Spanish court for allegations relating to tax fraud during his time at Real Madrid.

Mourinho is alleged to owe nearly €3.3 million in undeclared image rights revenue. Although his representatives have denied the allegations, it is still uncertain if he will attend the hearing but he shifted his pre-match conference from Friday to Thursday.

It is also reported that the training schedule for Manchester United has also been changed.

According to Mourinho’s representatives, the Manchester United manager who lived in Spain from June 2010 till May 2013 paid more than £23 million at an average of more than 41%.

Mourinho had “accepted the regularisation proposals made by the Spanish tax authorities in 2015 regarding the years of 2011 and 2012 and entered into a settlement agreement regarding 2013,” Gestifute, Mourinho’s representative said.

“The Spanish government in turn, through the tax department, issued a certificate in which it attested that he had regularised his position and was in compliance with all his tax obligations.”

A notable number of players have been known to have faced tax fraud in recent times in Spain.

Why always Spain?

The Spanish La Liga is known to have produced and featured a great number of football legends. With the likes of Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Beckham, Zidane, Samuel Eto’o to present Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the league is arguably one of the best in the world.

But in recent years, football players and fans alike have witnessed an increase in accusations of tax fraud and invasion among other financial crimes.

In 2016, Javier Mascherano of FC Barcelona was given a one year suspended prison sentence for tax fraud.

Lionel Messi and his father Jorge were convicted by the Spanish judiciary for defrauding the State of the sum of €4.1 million in unpaid taxes on Messi’s image rights, controlled by offshore companies in Belize and Uruguay, and were slammed with a jail term of 21 months.

Neymar was also charged for tax fraud with a jail term of two years and a €10 million fine before he was later cleared of the charge. He was however ordered to stand trial over corruption prior to his move to FC Barcelona from Santos.

Ronaldo became the third member of the elite La Liga trio to face criminal accusations, after prosecutors announced they were pursuing the 32-year-old former Manchester United man on four counts of tax fraud.

Are top players targeted?

Soon after David Beckham joined Real Madrid in 2003, he was able to enjoy a new tax-exemption scheme aimed at attracting foreign talent to Spain. That scheme became known as the Beckham Law, when he became one of the first players to sign up to a six-year-long tax ceiling of 24%, roughly half what Spaniards paid on six-figure-plus incomes.

Spain was in the midst of an unprecedented economic boom, a perfect playground for “galacticos” of the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo, before the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo and the emergence of Barcelona Lionel Messi.

But in 2010 the Beckham Law was scrapped for salaries of more than €600,000, and since then tax inspectors have begun to wise up to the use of complex financial operations using offshore shell companies to get around tax laws.

“The line between avoidance and evasion is very fine in these cases. In the past few years, Spain’s tax agency has intensified its control over footballers and their companies, checking to see if they are mere fronts or whether they are really active economically,” explains Carlos Cruzado, president of tax inspectors’ union Gestha.

However fans have decried the move by Spanish procecutors as it seems to be targeted at top profiled players probably owing to their large income received.

There are also speculations that, some top players may be driven out of the Spanish La Liga if the legal problem persists.

Facebook Comments
ETN24 - Explaining the News is about putting News in the correct context to promote understanding and education. We believe News should educate, not agitate. Our dedication is to fighting Fake and Sensational News, as well as to keep an eye on the media to ensure our peace and sanity are not sold for traffic.
+ posts