Premiership players paying minimal tax

[GabbyLoggon]

This has been floated in several papers
(Mirror yesterday and others.)

I assume there may be something in it;and that Nick Clugg would take it up

"All In It Together" and all that jazz.

Prem footie is good; but other aspects
seem out of control

I thought most of them were foreign anyway? A bit of creative relocation to fit with the residency rules and "Robert est votre oncle", as they say at Chelsea.

See my corporation tax thread for how they do it -

They aren't employed by the football club. Instead they set up a service company, which may have its HQ abroad or in the UK but either way they can avoid tax. The club pays the company, at worst the company pays corporation tax which is only 21% being reduced to 20% by the Tories (assuming they aren't being paid more than £300000 per annum, it is 28% being reduced to 25% for those above that).

The company can then award dividends to the player attracting relatively low income tax rates and zero national insurance.

My whinge is not just that the rich avoid tax through this loophole but that the Tory corporation tax cut actually makes them do even better out of it.

Bloody cheek, do they think they are bankers and non doms.

It's not quite as straightforward as that Paul.

If the player only had a contract with the football club then he would more than likely get nailed on IR35 which Labour rightly/wrongly brought in. In effect he would be tax as near as dammit like you or I would.

However, if the footballer has other contracts, like sponsorship deals, TV ads, whatever. Then he can genuinely claim his company is legit as he has multiple customers. The fact he's the only employee is irrelevant.

Given that most of the famous footballers will all have lucrative deals from their "image rights", although you personally may think its unfair actually I think on balance it is. Otherwise we have to tax all companies 50% and watch them leave in droves.

I think that most self employed people do it this way limited companies.