At the beginning of this week, the world media was buzzing with news about the trial of the famous footballer Cristiano Ronaldo in Madrid, where the Portuguese admitted his guilt for tax evasion and will have to pay a fine of up to 18.8 million euros, reported alfa.lt.
However, the former "Real" club star - not the only one involved in a legal process related to tax evasion.
Among the most famous footballers besides C. Ronaldo are "Barcelona" star Lionel Messi and also Neymar, who used to play in Catalonia in the past and now represents Paris Saint-Germain.
A few years ago, L. Messi encountered similar problems, which have now come to light in C. Ronaldo's case. The latter got caught for not complying with the tax laws changed in Spain in 2010, while L. Messi got into trouble for part of his income being transferred to companies in other countries, thus avoiding taxes in Spain.
Despite clubs in these countries filling up with players like David Beckham or Luis Figo in the middle of the last decade, they, as citizens of those countries, were subject to tax benefits - players were only required to pay a 24% income tax.
However, the rule, nicknamed the "Beckham rule," was changed in 2010 - it was decided that players earning more than 600 thousand euros annually would no longer receive benefits.
Nevertheless, representatives of the most famous footballers tried to circumvent these rules. C. Ronaldo hid nearly 15 million euros in taxes from 2011 to 2014, and admitted his guilt in court on Tuesday.
On the other hand, L. Messi's case is a bit more complex. The Argentine's income in firms located in other countries was transferred between 2007-2009, and the person most involved was not the player himself, but his father Jorge. In total, they avoided about 4.1 million euros in taxes in this case.
Both C. Ronaldo and L. Messi faced not only monetary fines in these cases but also imprisonment - the Portuguese was sentenced to 23 months, while the Argentine to 21 months. However, after proving that L. Messi had no knowledge of the criminal activities, the imprisonment sentence was lifted.
Nevertheless, even in the opposite case, one of the best footballers of all time would not have been behind bars - in Spain, a rule allows for conditional release or suspension of sentences up to two years. This also saved C. Ronaldo.
Interestingly, many other famous legionnaires who played in Spain like the Argentine Javier Mascherano and Angel Di Maria, or Chilean Alexis Sanchez, faced similar problems as Ronaldo. They were all found guilty but paid fines to avoid imprisonment.
The case of another famous footballer involved in legal proceedings - Neymar - is different from C. Ronaldo or L. Messi, as he got involved in a case where the player was accused not by Spain but by his native Brazil. The reason for this was the player being accused of tax evasion while playing for the "Santos" club.
The focus of the court case was on the income Neymar received from the clothing manufacturer "Nike", a significant part of which was transferred to overseas operating companies controlled by Neymar and his associates. Brazilian courts imposed a fine of 52.6 million US dollars on Neymar for tax evasion, but unlike C. Ronaldo or L. Messi, the player avoided imprisonment.
alfa.lt
