Real Madrid star Cristiano
Ronaldo is another high profile name in football who is accused of having
allegedly moved money to a "tax haven".
The claims emerged in a
data leak of over 18 million documents, investigated for the past several
months by a group of pan-European media organisations.
An MP has called for an
investigation into Jose Mourinho's financial affairs following claims he moved
millions of pounds offshore in order to avoid paying tax.
It is alleged the
Manchester United manager's advisers may have helped him move large sums of
money to Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands to avoid paying tax on
earnings from the use of his image rights for product endorsement - something
which has been strongly denied.
Football agency Gestifute,
which represents the two Portuguese stars, has strenuously denied suggestions
its clients may have taken part in a tax avoidance scheme involving millions of
pounds.
In a statement, it said:
"Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho are fully compliant with their
tax obligations with the Spanish and British tax authorities.
"Neither Cristiano
Ronaldo nor Jose Mourinho have ever been involved in legal proceedings
regarding the commission of a tax offence.
"Any insinuation or
accusation made to Cristiano Ronaldo or Jose Mourinho over the commission of a
tax offence will be reported to the legal authorities and prosecuted."
But MP Meg Hillier,
chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, called on tax authorities to
investigate the claims.
"These revelations are
extraordinary and warrant a close examination by the UK tax authorities,"
she said.
An HMRC spokesman said:
"HMRC carefully scrutinises the arrangements between football clubs and
their employees in respect of any image right payments to make sure the right
tax is paid - in recent years we have identified more than £80m in additional
tax payable from clubs, players and agents.
"We take seriously
allegations that customers or their agents may have acted dishonestly in the
course of an inquiry, and can reopen closed cases if we suspect this has
happened."
The European Investigative
Collaborations (EIC) consortium, consisting of journalists from the UK's Sunday
Times, Germany's Der Spiegel, Spain's El Mundo, and the Netherlands' NRC, said
it will release further revelations in the coming weeks under the banner
'Football Leaks'.
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