More than a half of Messi´s salary is subject to taxation. How about the Slovak players?

They earn millions, according to their contracts. Football stars are worried about the taxes. They quite often face allegations of their avoidance. The name of Lionel Messiho has even been mentioned in  Panama Papers.

It is necessary to understand that the players compare their netto income between each other. What we pay to them is subject to highest taxes in Europe (...)  the vice president of FC Barcelona Javier Faust stated last year. In Spain the tax rate depends on a region, in which the club has its seat. The average tax burden is around 40 per cent. In Madrid 52 per cent, in Barcelona even 56. 
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Lionel Messi is one of the clients of the company Mossack Fonseca known from the Panama Papers. He faced charges on the tax evasion amounting to four million in the past as well. Last year he was cleared. Investigators later claimed that the best football player in the world (five times) had no idea on the alleged fraud. They indicted his father Jorge Horacio Messi instead. Tax advisers are very important for the athletes. „Top players like Messi are a different category. All of them use services of a specialised company advising them and taking care of the accounting and taxes as well as pension funds, image rights, sports marketing. Not to mention big transfers,“ Jozef Tokos, a sports lawyer and football intermediary explains. (...) „Even in case a player agrees with a respected company, he still bears the responsibility. Every player should consider carefully whom to trust and who should be a contractual partner. It is inevitable to accept advices on the taxes, therefore it is important that the players choose the right people,“ added Tokos. 
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In Slovakia no player earns millions. The best players are subject to the highest rate of the income tax, which is only  25 per cent in Slovakia. In the past football players were considered to be self employed persons for the tax purposes.  „They had to submit tax sheets. I can confirm that almost every player agreed with someone taking care of his taxes. In majority of cases only one accountant,“ claims Tokos. The situation has changed since January 1 as the new law on sports is effective.  „Unless there is other income of the player, say, rewards from the national team, he is considered to be an employee. The employer is responsible to deduct income tax at present,“ added Tokos.
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