Messi And 3 Other Footballers That Escaped Jail Time For Committing Tax Fraud
I guess you never knew our innocent heroes were nearly sent to jail for Committing money related crimes. But evading tax has been somewhat common to footballers and it seems to be rampant in Spain.
And today we share a list of some famous football stars that were found guilty of tax evasion. Top of the list is your favorite Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
1. Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi along with his father Jorge were found to have evaded tax payments amounting to €2m for Messi and €1.5m for his father. Lionel was slapped a 21-month jail sentence, he appealed the sentence but it was rejected by a Spanish court. The football star and his father eventually made a voluntary €5m payment. Messi would not have served the jail term because in Spain any jail sentence less than 2 years could be replaced by probation. That was how arguably the best player ever escaped jail time.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo
Back when he was still playing in Spain between 2010 and 2014, it is reported that the Portuguese evaded tax worth €18.8m and the penalty for that was a 23-month jail time but by agreeing to settle the case and being a first time offender the 5 time Ballon d'or winner escaped serving time.
3. Neymar Jr
In 2015 Neymar was accused of ommitting sources of income, it was alleged that this was done in order to avoid paying tax resulting from those earnings. In 2017 he was fined 3.8million and subsequently cleared of tax fraud.
While the case was ongoing the star warned that the tax allegations could force him to leave Spain and so he did. He signed for PSG in April of that year.
4. Xabi Alonso
The former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern star was accused of defrauding Spain €2m in tax payments. The Midfielder denied any wrong doing and was subsequently found not guilty. If found guilty a two and half jail term was on the cards.
With all that millions been made each year why don't footballers just pay the tax instead of waiting to get dragged before paying.
Content created and supplied by: Talk4Real (via Opera News )
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