No harm, no foul?
It appears that soccer superstar Lionel Messi is finally ready to put allegations of tax evasion behind him. Messi and his father, Jorge Horacio, have paid Spanish authorities €5 million ($6.56743 million U.S.) as a “corrective payment.” The pair have, however, long denied any wrongdoing in the matter, with Messi saying in July:
I never take care of that stuff myself and neither does my father. We have our lawyers and our wealth managers to take care of that and we trust them and they will sort this out. The truth is that I don’t have a clue about all this and that is why we have people taking care of it.
The payment is consistent with earlier reports that suggested the footballer had reached a settlement with Spanish tax authorities. In June, Messi had reportedly agreed to pay up to settle claims that he and his father hatched a scheme to avoid paying tax. Messi and his father allegedly used a series of shell companies in tax havens to shield royalties and other licensing income from Spanish income tax.
The Argentine-born Messi has lived in Barcelona since 2000 and became a Spanish citizen in 2005. He has played with FC Barcelona for the entirety of his professional sports career and is considered the greatest footballer on the pitch today. With such accolades, it’s clear that Messi will continue to rake in salary and endorsements. The football star is ranked #39 on Forbes’ Celebrity list and #10 on Forbes’ list of the most highly paid athletes with estimated earnings of $41 million in salary and endorsements as of June 2013. Those numbers will continue at least through 2018 as Messi’s contract is expected to pay out more than $20 million annually.
Messi and his father are still due to appear at a hearing on 17 September, although at this point that appears to be a mere formality. If he had been convicted of the original charges against him, he could have faced up to five years in prison and a fine of up to €24 million ($31,274,400 US).
With these tax matters settled, Messi is now free to focus on the current season – and it’s shaping up to be a good year for him. Earlier this week, he scored his twenty-third career hat trick in a 3–2 win against Valencia. At age 26, he is the sixth-highest goalscorer in the history of La Liga, the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system.
