Spanish newspaper El Confidencial is in hot water over an exposé suggesting Portugal’s football ‘hero’ Cristiano Ronaldo is evading national taxes by using a company based in Ireland to sign many of his lucrative business contracts.
The nub of El Confidencial’s report is that Ireland has the lowest rate of tax on ensuing profits – “just 12.5%”. It claims that if Ronaldo was to face the music in Spain, the tax rate would be 43.5%.
But Gestifute – CR7’s promotional company – is not taking the slur lightly.
Issuing a statement following publication of El Confidencial’s story, the company said its client’s tax situation was “up to date”.
Gestifute has been having a bad week as elsewhere there have been suggestions of tax irregularities by another high-profile Portuguese client, Manchester United coach José Mourinho.
The stories all follow a period in March this year when “internet servers of various companies connected to the world of sport were victims of a hack attack in various European countries, namely in Spain”, said Gestifute’s in a statement issued yesterday.
More than eight months after the attack, Gestifute, its clients and various entities connected to the company received “an extensive questionnaire from certain branches of the media” connected to a European consortium, the communiqué continues – adding that the tone of the questionnaire was “insidious, disrespectful, threatening and far from the most elementary good practices of journalism”.
It seems that El Confidencial has come into picture as a news source outside the consortium – which has since been legally blocked from publishing any information that may have been obtained in the so-called March ‘hack attack’.
Thus Gestifute is on a mission of ‘damage limitation’.
Its statement warns that any “insinuations or allegations” about the tax situations of CR7 and José Mourinho “will be denounced and pursued through the courts” – adding that European tax authorities “have different criteria” when it comes to image rights and “foreign clients frequently find themselves affected by these differences, with which they respect and comply”.
Gestifute’s statement added that “every case in which discrepancies with the authorities over tax matters have been verified has been resolved by agreement, without the need to resort to the courts”.
Photo: www.facebook.com/Cristiano
