Lionel Messi obscenity - n/g | Page 2 | Vital Football

Lionel Messi obscenity - n/g

I have no problem with people being successful and earning that sort of money provided that the pay the appropriate tax. You should ask the left-wing socilaist Spanish government why Messi is allowed to get away with not doing that....


We could start closer to home. Panama papers wasn't so long ago.
 
I haven't got a problem with people being paid ludicrous money but pay your taxes, don't take the piss.

I doubt that Ronaldo, Messi or any other top footballer decides how they are remunerated. They will have agents, accountants and tax advisers who will do all this for them. Whilst the players are ultimately accountable for the taxes, it probably isn’t their day-to-day responsibility does maybe a tad unfair to put all the blame on the players themselves.

Also, I would distinguish between evasion and avoidance. It is perfectly legal (and normal) for us to all avoid paying taxes. Whether that is contributing to a pension, paying in to an ISA and planning for death - we all want to pay the least amount of tax. I draw the line where it becomes tax evasion.
 
I doubt that Ronaldo, Messi or any other top footballer decides how they are remunerated. They will have agents, accountants and tax advisers who will do all this for them. Whilst the players are ultimately accountable for the taxes, it probably isn’t their day-to-day responsibility does maybe a tad unfair to put all the blame on the players themselves.

I'm a tax advisor for a large reputable firm, and a few years me and lots of my colleagues got loads of messages from randoms on linkedin about opportunities at various "boutique firms focussing on high net worth (HNW) individuals".

Basically, if I'd got the job, I'd have spent my days setting up trusts and looking for loopholes to help billionaires avoid paying their income/capital gains/inheritance tax, legally or otherwise.

Sufficed to say I didn't bother replying.

So I have no doubt whatsoever that Messi and Ronaldo were told by someone that if they signed here, pay me "x" million euros, and it'll save you 100 times that in taxes, and they just did.

The reason that the taxpayers are on the hook themselves rather than the partners, is because the slippery partners will have included a million and one caveats, which basically exempts themselves from prosecution if any of their "advice" ends up beings considered illegal by the various authorities....
 
I'm a tax advisor for a large reputable firm, and a few years me and lots of my colleagues got loads of messages from randoms on linkedin about opportunities at various "boutique firms focussing on high net worth (HNW) individuals".

Basically, if I'd got the job, I'd have spent my days setting up trusts and looking for loopholes to help billionaires avoid paying their income/capital gains/inheritance tax, legally or otherwise.

Sufficed to say I didn't bother replying.

So I have no doubt whatsoever that Messi and Ronaldo were told by someone that if they signed here, pay me "x" million euros, and it'll save you 100 times that in taxes, and they just did.

The reason that the taxpayers are on the hook themselves rather than the partners, is because the slippery partners will have included a million and one caveats, which basically exempts themselves from prosecution if any of their "advice" ends up beings considered illegal by the various authorities....

Or - if the government decides to make changes to the tax law retrospectively which we’ve seen in the UK recently.
 
Or - if the government decides to make changes to the tax law retrospectively which we’ve seen in the UK recently.

What was that?

General principal is that you can't make retrospective law changes, otherwise you could simply never do any planning.

What happens frequently is "loopholes" getting shut down for future years.
 
What was that?

General principal is that you can't make retrospective law changes, otherwise you could simply never do any planning.

What happens frequently is "loopholes" getting shut down for future years.

The film investment tax write off and there was a stamp duty scheme a few years back which are examples of this.

I know several people that got nailed by HMRC retrospectively closing the loophole. One of my mates was on the hook for £200k.
 
The film investment tax write off and there was a stamp duty scheme a few years back which are examples of this.

I know several people that got nailed by HMRC retrospectively closing the loophole. One of my mates was on the hook for £200k.

Ahhhhh yes that's right.

What HMRC did was technically not change the law retrospectively, but change their interpretation of whether something was or was not allowed under the scheme, which led to all the tax being due.

Lawyers innit.
 
Ahhhhh yes that's right.

What HMRC did was technically not change the law retrospectively, but change their interpretation of whether something was or was not allowed under the scheme, which led to all the tax being due.

Lawyers innit.

Those shenanigans have put me off getting involved with any of those schemes. I stick to the fairly vanilla method of paying myself via dividends which isn't as good as it used to be.