Arsenal made a superb comeback in the Champions League on Tuesday night, but at the same time a story was breaking about Alexis Sanchez and tax.
There’s been a lot of tax-based accusations aimed at (ex-)Barcelona players flying around in recent times.
For example, Javier Mascherano and Lionel Messi both appeared in court this year and were both handed prison sentences, while Neymar was also charged with tax evasion by Brazilian authorities back in February.
The latest happens to be Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez, with reports from El Periodico claiming the former Barcelona star has been accused of evading close to £900k during his time at the Catalan club.
Appearing in the Spanish press yesterday, the claims have since been refuted by the Arsenal player’s agent, Fernando Felicevich, on Twitter.
Denuncia de la Hacienda española. – Aclaraciones pic.twitter.com/ZXhLSEMtav
— Fernando Felicevich (@ffelicevich) 1 November 2016
The South-American agent released a statement claiming his client ‘has fully complied with each and every law in all the countries he has resided in’, as well as paying all taxes to the relevant authorities and declaring all personal income.
He continued by stating: “The declaration from the Spanish tax office is based on an interpretative change in criteria of the Spanish regulation that allows the payment of image rights to athletes through a business, as long as it doesn’t exceed the 15% of the total payment made by the club.
“Currently, said tax office understands all said income needs to be assigned fully in spite of the recognition of the tax law and the collective bargaining agreement of said percentage”
Felicevich then pointed out once again the Arsenal star had fully declared and paid all perceived income.
In short, he says Alexis Sanchez hasn’t done anything wrong.
This is bound to drag out a bit longer, and there might be a few twists and turns along the way.
We’ll be keeping an eye on it.
