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HMRC Continues Football Tax Evasion Crackdown

Robbie Lawther

26 September 2017

is continuing with its football crackdown, as it is investigating 90 Premier League footballers for tax evasion, according to the Sun.

The UK tax collector has been looking into the financial acts within football, and in April, raided the grounds and training facilities of both Newcastle United and West Ham United over a free transfer between the clubs.

According to the newspaper, the HMRC believes the footballers in question have set up companies in offshore havens in a bid to evade tax.  Footballers, clubs and agents are all being investigated by HMRC inspectors over image rights tax schemes, which was at the centre of HMRC’s investigation over Demba Ba’s move from West Ham to Newcastle. 

HMRC is also checking the financial affairs of 38 clubs and 13 agents over a range of different issues including image rights, the Sun said.

Paul Geoghegan partner at law firm Morton Fraser described image rights within a 2014 statement on the company’s website.

“Image rights are the proprietary rights that an individual has in his or her image, and the other unique characteristics associated with their personality (such as their signature),” said Geoghegan. “There are a number of ways that image rights can be used to generate revenue, from being assigned as part of complex tax planning vehicles such as image rights companies’, to being promoted under agency or representation agreements, where a third party collects a commission every time their successful promotion or management of an individual’s image rights results in a new opportunity for endorsement, publicity, sponsorship, or licensing for that individual.”