Tax authorities could demand €63 million for Neymar deal

Posted Wednesday, January 29, 2014 by Marca.com

· Sonda brands 2011 Barça-Neymar contract illegal
· "Florentino Pérez called José María Aznar, who called Gallardón, and the prosecutor changed his opinion" | Us vs them
· Real Madrid denies Florentino Pérez is behind case against Rosell
· Bartomeu: "I'm seeing a certain animosity towards Barça"
· Jordi Cases refuses to back out of suing Rosell

Tax authorities could demand €63 million for Neymar deal The costs of signing Neymar could continue to rise according to reports in this Tuesday's 'El Mundo' newspaper. The paper, which revealed the real figures involved in the contract, says that it's expected that Spain's tax authorities will consider the €50 million paid to the company N&N (Neymar&Neymar) as disguised remuneration.

The big question is if Barça has paid Spanish tax authorities for those €50 million or if the player has. The standard agreement is for that quantity to be received by the player post-tax, since players always agree net figures.

Conclusion: Neymar has not been required to pay the relevant income tax, since his current employers would be responsible for paying this additional tax charge. Otherwise, Neymar would be left with €22 million from the original €50 million.

Catalonia has the highest marginal personal tax rate in Spain (56%), and equal top with Sweden in Europe, which would mean that if we consider the sum paid to N&N (€50 million post-tax) as "disguised remuneration" we'd be talking about a tax bill of €63 million.

This sum would then need to be added to the €95 million in other payments – registration rights, friendlies, hidden commission and the €50 million paid to N&N – made to sign the Brazilian. This gives us a new total of €158 million, and that's before adding any payments that would need to be made to the funds that held 45% of the player's commercial rights: DIS (40%) and Teisa (5%).