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Belgian tax authorities investigate footballers
Belgium
12:27 17/02/2015
The Belgian tax authorities have started an investigation into the way several Belgian football players manage their advertising revenues through Luxembourg companies, reports De Morgen. The inspection is part of a broader tax investigation into financial practices in the football sector.
Last November’s Lux Leaks affair alerted the tax authorities to the foreign tax evasion practices used by some Belgian footballers, including Eden Hazard (photo, right), Thibaut Courtois, Divock Origi and Kevin Mirallas.
According to Lux Leaks, certain Red Devils have a company in Luxembourg through which they divert advertising revenues, an income that comes with a 20% tax rate in Luxembourg, where 80% of image rights are tax exempt.
Comments
No disrespect to footballers, but there can't be many of them with the knowledge to do this unaided. How about going after whoever advised them and helped them to execute this strategy, as well as them for taking advantage of it (assuming it is illegal of course). Too many governments are crying wolf about this but refusing to enact the legislation to make this kind of tax avoidance illegal!
Make life simple!
Have one reasonable tax that everybody and every company pays.
Taxation will be the death of Europe.
The UK tax code was something like 5000 pages in 1997.
Sounds a lot?
Today it is over 17,000 pages!
By contrast, Hong Kong is 276 pages long.
A bit like the EU, every attempt at simplification seems to involve more complication. Another 50 pages of crap to remove one.