Madrid: Spanish tax authorities have given their ‘ok’ for Portuguese football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo to pay close to 19 million euros ($22 million) to settle a tax fraud claim, prosecutors said Friday.
Prosecutors in Madrid said the deal with tax authorities and Ronaldo’s advisors also includes a two-year jail sentence which he won’t serve. According to the Spanish law sentences up to two years are generally not implemented for first-time offenders in non-violent crimes.
The 33-year-old former Real Madrid striker, who has moved to Juventus, appeared in court last July near Madrid and pleaded guilty to four charges of evasion between 2011 and 2014. He has been alleged to have hidden his income generated in Spain from his image rights from tax authorities.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner is also alleged to have used companies in low-tax foreign jurisdictions — notably the British Virgin Islands and Ireland — to avoid having to pay the tax otherwise due.
According to Spanish authorities in 2014 Ronaldo was late in declaring that year just 11.5 million euros of revenue earned in Spain for the period 2011-2014 when his earnings in his country of residence totalled 43 million euros.
The Spanish taxman also found he did not declare 28.4 million euros in image rights agreed for 2015-2020, leaving 14.7 million owing.
His legal team had blamed the affair on a simple different interpretation of which revenue he was obliged to declare in Spain.
Had the case gone further, without the player offering a full settlement, he could have faced a fine of a reported 28 millions euros as well as a three-and-a-half-year jail term, according to the Spanish tax office union Gestha.