Maradona’s family file appeal to avoid paying wealth tax
Argentinian footballer Carlos Tevez and relatives of late star Diego Maradona filed court injunctions to avoid paying Argentina’s new wealth tax, in the latest example of the difficulty in making millionaires comply with the levy.
Heirs of Maradona, who died last year, entered a formal complaint on Friday in a national appeals court, according to 442, the sports website of local news outlet Perfil.
Tevez filed an injunction on Thursday, according to a registration of the case in the justice system’s listings. His lawyer, Juan Carlos Nicolini, confirmed the filing, which focuses on whether the levy is constitutional.
Mr Nicolini said his client’s complaint is confidential and declined to give more details. He estimated that currently there are already more than 100 presentations made by people seeking to be exempted from paying the tax.
In December, Argentina’s government passed a one-off “extraordinary contribution” ruling that about 13,000 affluent citizens are expected to pay.
Argentina passed a law that requires citizens with more than $2.2 million in assets to pay a one-off wealth tax
The tax applies to Argentines with more than $2.2 million in assets, and the levy varies depending on the amount and where the assets are held. The deadline to pay was Friday.
Politicians estimated last year the tax would rake in about 300 billion pesos ($3.2bn). However, data through to March shows that the tax authority received just 6.1bn pesos, or about 2 per cent of that target. Dozens of rich Argentines are challenging the tax in court, calling it “confiscatory”.
Before his death, Maradona expressed support for the tax, writing on Instagram that “in this moment of crisis, help is needed from those of us who have most”. He died before it was approved.
Tevez plays for Argentina’s most famous team, Boca Juniors, where he won 10 cups. He was born in Fuerte Apache, an impoverished neighbourhood in Buenos Aires. In 2019, Netflix released a historical fictional account of his life.
He began to play as a child in the lower ranks of Boca Juniors but his scoring ability catapulted him to Brazil and then to European football, where he played for about 10 years and made a fortune.
Tevez is Argentina’s most-decorated footballer after Lionel Messi, with 29 international and national titles with teams such as Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus.