Jose Mourinho has sought to reassure the Spanish tax office that the £3m he is alleged to owe them in unpaid taxes has in fact been resting in his account all the time.
Mourinho has become another high profile person associated with football in Spain whose tax arrangements have come under scrutiny in recent years following Lionel Messi’s conviction last year and recent allegations against Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar.
The Herald understands the issues relate to taxes on income from the use of image rights. It’s alleged that football agents and accountants would set up complex offshore arrangements for high earners following the scrapping of the Beckham law. It’s alleged that these arrangements enabled Mourinho to avoid paying tax on his image rights income.
A source close to Mourinho told us, “Jose is very sad about it. He sent me a sad emoji last night.”
For his part Mourinho has strenuously denied the allegations. The source said, “Jose is a high profile sportsman. Like many such people there is a lot of money flowing through his accounts. It’s sometimes necessary that that money rests for a short while before paying it. The money was just resting.”
Jose has a beautiful face with smouldering dark eyes that you drown in if you linger too long on. He needs his image rights income to maintain himself in charcoal coloured jackets. Do you think Arsene Wenger has Gillette wanting to use him? No. Because Arsene is ugly on the outside as well as having no soul.”
The tax affairs of footballers in Spain have been attracting some other attention though. Brian Jones of Cayman F.C. told the Herald, “We have offered Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo and Mourinho jobs with very generous tax breaks. With this we intend to build a team to take on Jamaica. We’re sure we’ll be successful.”
They may face tough competition though as Jersey businessmen have expressed an interest in using that islands generous tax arrangements to lure the footballers and bring back the glory days of Bergerac to the island.
