Mourinho embroiled in Ronaldo tax haven claims
THE soccer agency Gestifute has denied that clients, including Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, are involved in any tax evasion after a media consortium claimed that they had structured deals through Ireland to minimise their tax bills.
A group of 12 European news outlets on Friday began publishing the results of months of investigations into a vast trove of more than 18 million financial documents, which had been obtained by the German magazine Der Spiegel and dubbed the ‘Football Leaks’.
‘Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho are fully compliant with their tax obligations with the Spanish and British tax authorities,’ Gestifute said. ’ The European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) consortium intends to release details of its findings over the next three weeks.
One of the publications, the French investigative portal Mediapart, said Ronaldo and Mourinho had benefited from a tax-optimisation system developed by their agent Jorge Mendes, who owns Gestifute.
Mediapart said the system Gestifute employed for its various clients, represented a total potential loss to tax authorities of at least €185m.
Ronaldo was reported to have used an Irish company to structure an image rights deal which meant he could pay tax at the 12.5% corporation tax rate rather than 43.5% in Spain. Gestifute said: ‘Neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Jose Mourinho have ever been involved in legal proceedings regarding the commission of a tax offence.’