Spain's tax authorities are "increasing the pressure on football in systematic fashion, not only on the clubs, but also on players," according to Orfeo Suárez of EL MUNDO. Independently of the Neymar and Lionel Messi cases, the tax authorities are now "carrying out a widespread inspection to question footballers' salary structures, which results from a political agreement" brought about by the IRPF (personal income tax) Law from '96." That law allowed players to receive "15% of their remuneration in image rights through private companies." In "recently carried out investigations that have implicated numerous footballers, the tax authorities believe many agencies created for players' image rights have no real function." Due to this, "the tax authorities believe they should reclassify the quantities paid to these agencies as labor income." As a consequence, "players would have to pay the difference between the tax on those agencies (30%) and the personal income tax rate (52%) from the last four years." For a Real Madrid or Barcelona player on the second salary level, "with earnings of around €6M ($7.6M) per year," they would be ordered to pay about €1.5M ($1.9M). The inspections "have looked closely at Real Madrid and Barcelona, but other rosters, like Valencia's and Atlético's, have also been affected." Real's Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas, Xabi Alonso -- now with Bayern Munich -- and Barcelona's Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández and Gerard Piqué "have been some of the int'ls implicated, although they are not all being investigated." In some cases, "the advisers of players have taken the initiative to reach agreements with the tax authorities" (EL MUNDO, 10/29). MARCA reported Spain's tax authorities have "upped their vigilance in keeping track" of Spanish professional football players' income. After the "well-known
run-ins that the clubs themselves have had with the authorities
regarding this issue," it is now "the
players' turn." The government is "questioning the way that these sports
professionals pay their income taxes, who up to now are allowed to
receive 15% of the salary they receive from their clubs through image
rights paid through private companies" (MARCA, 10/29).
