More than half the countries that have qualified for the World Cup are facing additional costs and potential losses due to Fifa’s failure to agree a blanket tax exemption with the United States government and significant variance in the host country’s international tax treaties.
As a not-for-profit organisation Fifa has had tax-free status in the US since the 1994 World Cup, but that exemption does not apply to all of the 48 qualifiers, whose national associations must pay a range of federal, state and city taxes on their earnings from the tournament this summer.
Players also need to pay US tax on their earnings in the US.
I recall emanations from Ely back when the UK hosted summat. Can’t recall what it was but a big jamboree. And there was outrage that the participants had a blanket protection from UK taxation for the period of the jamboree. This is outrageous, tax foreigners etc.
Jus’ wonder what the commentary would be now that it’s Trumpy following the policy formerly recommended?
Tax exemptions for big sporting events are quite common. IIRC one applies for The Open golf tournament. You’ll be taxed in your home country but not in the UK. That such an exemption doesn’t apply to other tournaments is one of the reasons for the reluctance of US players to play here. Prize money – even for one top 10 finish – can drag someone through the bands and into horrible bits like losing your personal allowance and being taxed at an effective 60% rate on parts of your winnings.
Obviously golfers haven’t been told that the Laffer curve isn’t real ((c) Spud) and that people don’t make decisions based on tax rates.
I think it was Nigel Lawson who introduced prize money being taxed at source in this country. But as players are paid to appear by their associations, this seems pretty unfair. I think there might be some confusion here.
FIFA and the IOC are huge criminal cartels. They pressurise the host nation into spending vast sums on facilities. Then they pocket the proceeds all tax free. In their headlong rush to conquer the North American market, they rather seem to have come up against the implacable and inscrutable force that is the IRS.
Eh. It’s a fight over who gets the money. The players, i.e. the people actually working, won’t.
My attitude there is “Can’t both of them lose?”
The IRS is quite scrutable, they are there to screw as much money out of you as possible. It is also where implacable meets incompetent. I spent nine months arguing with them to get them to add together two numbers they already had in their possession to determine I wasn’t trying to evade taxes.
From memory the UK also (still does?) taxed sportspeople on their various endorsements as well as what they earnt from the competition they were competing in based on how long they were in country. i.e. 2 weeks at Wimbledon equalled tax of 14/365th of gross worldwide income which in some cases (I think athletics and Usain Bolt specifically) meant they’d be taxed more than they’d earn.
I was going to say the same thing. If the London Olympics hadn’t received special tax status, Bolt and others (presumably the biggest stars) would not have come.
https://www.t*xresearch.org.uk/Blog/2012/07/11/time-to-tackle-olympic-sized-tax-breaks/
This bit made me chuckle
Experts (I think they mean me) think the UK could be losing tens of millions
There’s nobody else like him is there?
I thought giving a tax exemption was one of the conditions required for ‘winning’ the location battle for these sort of events.
S perhaps this is really a sign that the World Cup organisers are putting their freebies ahead of the players’?
The Internal Revenue never pursued me for tax on my earnings in the US (intermittently over a forty year spell). Presumably that was because the sums were so modest. But the Inland Revenue did take an interest in my tiny earnings from the Irish Republic.
On the other hand I once had a year of earning salaries in both the UK and Oz and, due to a wonderful tax treaty, I paid no income tax on either. Even better, I was allowed in the next UK tax year to make tax-avoiding contributions to a pension based on my Aussie earnings. It was well worth hiring a tax accountant for that spell. It’s all a hoot, isn’t it?
Whah! Whah!
So this week, Guardian is AGAINST taxes.