FC Barcelona superstar Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, known to most of the world simply as Neymar, has been ordered by a Brazilian court to pay a €100,000 ($109,374 US) fine for unpaid taxes. The unpaid taxes in question are tied to the years 2007-08, according to Marca.
With the ruling, Judge Bruno Cezar da Cunha Teixeira rejected the claim that the undeclared income was attributable to a company, NR Deportes, and not to Neymar. Neymar and his father have been ordered to pay the fine though they are expected to appeal.
Neymar, a native of Brazil, burst onto the soccer scene playing for the youth club Santos FC. He was reportedly sought after by major European clubs at the age of 14 but stayed in his home country to play for the senior club Santos instead, making his professional debut with the club in 2009. It was during his time with Santos – and the negotiations before he joined the senior team – that the unclaimed income was allegedly paid to Neymar.
If that sounds like a familiar story, it is. Santos alleges that similar negotiations took place when Neymar made the move to Spain. In 2013, Neymar announced that he would be moving to FC Barcelona. That contract, together with a winning team, helped Neymar climb the ranks of the soccer elite: in 2015, Neymar was ranked #82 on Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list and #23 on Forbes’ list of the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes racking up $14 million in salary and $17 million in endorsements last year alone.
Santos, Neymar’s original club in Brazil, alleges that negotiations for Neymar began as early as 2011. Allegedly, payments related to that signing were made to a Brazilian company controlled by Neymar’s father, which Spanish prosecutors allege were disguised as other payments in order to avoid reporting and tax requirements. Payments were also made to Neymar’s former club (Santos).
Santos, believing it had been cheated, subsequently filed court papers in an effort to find out more details of the transaction. At the time, Neymar and his father denied any wrongdoing, suggesting that any resulting tax consequences of the sale would be addressed in Brazil. That’s what happened last year when, in Brazil, Judge Carlos Muta charged Neymar with “omitting sources of income from abroad” from 2011 and 2013. The amount of corresponding tax at stake is reportedly 63 million reals ($15.93 million U.S.) for those years. According to reports, FC Barcelona was identified as the source of that income.
As a result of the charges, in September of last year, Judge Muta ordered 188.8 million reals ($47.75 million U.S.) of Neymar’s assets frozen: that amount is roughly three times more than the amount of tax at issue.
And like a pack of Ginsu knives: that’s not all! In 2015, a Spanish Court found that there was enough evidence to go to trial over the Santos to Barcelona transfer. While Neymar and his father have not been charged in Spain, Neymar’s club, FC Barcelona, will go to trial on tax fraud charges as will club president Josep Bartomeu, and former club president Alexandre “Sandro” Rosell. The team has denied any wrongdoing.
FC Barcelona’s players added more to the club’s long list of tax woes when, just last week, one of Neymar’s teammates, Javier Mascherano, pleaded guilty to two counts of tax fraud in Spain. Mascherano admitted that he failed to pay taxes on earnings for the years 2011 and 2012 which earned him a fine and jail time (he’ll likely avoid the jail time).
Another of Neymar’s teammates, Lionel Messi, is also facing allegations of tax fraud. Messi is scheduled to begin his trial on May 31, 2016, the same time as the Copa America Centenario. Messi’s lawyers are expected to ask that the trial be moved.
