June 21 – Spanish prosecutors have kept up their pressure on football’s alleged tax avoiders with Manchester United manager José Mourinho being the latest to be dragged before the courts. Mourinho has denied tax fraud of €3.3 million relating to his time at Real Madrid.
As Real Madrid coach from 2011 to 2012, the Portuguese coach is alleged to have not declared income from image rights deals to obtain an ‘illicit benefit’, according to Spanish prosecutors. They claim that “corporate structures were used by the accused in order to conceal revenues generated from his image rights.”
Like Cristiano Ronaldo, caught-up in a similar tax claim with Spanish prosecutors, Mourinho is represented by Portuguese firm Gestifute media who issued a statement saying he “has not received any notification” from the Spanish law enforcers. “To this date, neither the Spanish tax authorities, nor the public prosecutor have contacted Jose Mourinho or his advisers who were hired for the inspection process.”
“José Mourinho, who lived in Spain from June 2010 until May 2013, paid more than €26m in taxes, with an average tax rate over 41%, and 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,” continued the statement.
Ronaldo, who is rumoured to now want to leave Spain and Real Madrid following these claims, will testify in court on July 31 over allegations that he defrauded the authorities of €14.8 million in unpaid taxes between 2011 and 2014. Ronaldo and Mourinho are both clients of agent Jorge Mendes. Ricardo Carvalho, Ángel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao are other players from the Mendes stable of players under investigation.
Ronaldo and Mourinho have joined a growing list of football stars who are being investigated and prosecuted in Spain, in particular in relation to image rights. Barcelona star Lionel Messi has been found guilty of fraud.
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