One of the best soccer players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo, might serve some jail time because of tax fraud. As the Spanish El Confidencial wrote, most of Ronald’s advertising revenues have been invoiced through an Irish company called Multisports & Image Management Ltd (MIM Limited). However, the name of the famous player doesn’t appear anywhere in documents.
Ronaldo’s financial base is in Dublin, but there are no connections between the player and MIM Limited whatsoever. Ireland is a tax haven, and the corporation tax is the lowest in Europe – 12.5 percent. The Portuguese star would have saved a lot of money with this move. In Spain, he would have had to pay some additional taxes, and he would have to give them a total of 43.5 percent of his advertising income.
MIM Ltd signed an advertising contract with Nike, Unilever, Konami, Toyota Thailand, Jacob & Co., Mobility, Banco Espirito Santo and KFC. The MIM name can also be found in the perfume and cosmetics brand that Ronaldo established in September 2015.
If the authorities find out that Ronaldo is a shareholder in this company or if they fail to find a legal agreement between the company and Ronaldo, he might stand trial. Barcelona soccer stars, Lionel Messi and Neymar, are other players who are on trial for tax fraud.
Can you imagine any of these superstars going to jail? That would be a crazy thing to see.
