Official statement: Barcelona deny €15 million fine from tax authorities
The Catalan club released a statement on Thursday explaining the situation
FC Barcelona have responded to reports published on Thursday that the club have been fined more than €15 million by the tax authorities. The information published by El Conifdencial claimed that the Blaugrana have committed alleged irregularities with payments in kind to players.
In this sense, the club have issued an official statement in which they affirm that "of the alleged irregularities that El Confidencial talks about in its article, none of the issues mentioned were sanctioned by the Treasury," and that "the sanctions mentioned in the article, and which were appealed before the Central Economic Administrative Court, refer to another matter, such as the tax treatment of payments made to the players' agents."
In addition, Barça point out that it is expected "that the sanction relating to Value Added Tax will soon be annulled, as it also refers to the tax treatment of payments made to players' agents", and ask El Confidencial for a "rectification of the information".
Full statement:
Barcelona wishes to refute the news story published today Thursday 11 May 2023 in El Confidencial under the headline: “Barça fined 15 million by Tax Office after detecting payments to players with Audi cars and charter flights”.
Specifically FC Barcelona makes the following remarks and corrections with regarded to the published article:
That the club was inspected for the 2015/2016 and 2017/2018 financial years, the inspection closing in July 2021.
The Tax Office did not impose sanctions with regard to any of the supposed irregularities described by El Confidencial in its article.
The sanctions that the article describes, and which were appealed before the Central Administrative Financial Court, referred to a different matter, which was the tax applicable to payments to players' agents.
In this regard, Barça would like to stress that in April 2023, the Central Administrative Financial Court accepted the appeal lodged by the club's lawyers, cancelling the fines relating to the Income Tax (IRPF) and Non-Resident Income Tax. It is hoped that the fines relating to Value Added Tax (IVA), also on the matter of tax on payments to players' agents, will also be cancelled shortly.
The club demands rectification of the said information.
