Football Star Lionel Messi Accused Of €4M Tax Fraud

[fifs2]

I have to be honest when a friend mentioned this to me today I immediately thought of course he's guilty...tax evasion is as much a part of Argentine culture as a choripan. No comment on the rights or wrongs of it in Argentina or in Spain but it really hit home on the post I raised earlier this year about the Spanish Afip (Hacienda) looking to fill it's coffers as a result of too many years living of the fat of the land ie construction.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

I would say Messi knows about as much as his tax affairs as I do about Chinese music. He pays a consultant to avoid paying (sorry minimise his tax exposure) and will reliant on the same to get him out of the hole.

 

[fifs2]

I would say Messi knows about as much as his tax affairs as I do about Chinese music. He pays a consultant to avoid paying (sorry minimise his tax exposure) and will reliant on the same to get him out of the hole.

Agreed it just says more about the dire straits that Spain is in that they're going after a national icon they've adopted as their own whilst giving the Infanta impunity from her family's dirty business dealings...

 

[LostinBA]

So evidently, you can take the boy out of Argentina but not Argentina out of the boy.

 

[cbonanni]

He makes 50-60 million Euros a year. All he has to do is cut the check and stay out of the press.

 

[PaulBee]

I hate to be harsh but Spain has to send major tax evaders like Messi to jail (as they´re doing.) I hope Argentina will do the same to people who play shell games with corporations to avoid paying debts the courts have ordered them to pay. "I have no assets, so I can´t pay, but I run the major language school chain, which owes you rent from 2012."

 

[Johnny]

I would say Messi knows about as much as his tax affairs as I do about Chinese music. He pays a consultant to avoid paying (sorry minimise his tax exposure) and will reliant on the same to get him out of the hole.

Messi was 17 when the evasion was initiated, by his father and the tax experts his father hired. Messi doesn't know taxes from a rutabaga.

 

[Rich One]

The Defense argument sounds childish "Blame dad"

 

[scotttswan]

I hate to be harsh but Spain has to send major tax evaders like Messi to jail (as they´re doing.) I hope Argentina will do the same to people who play shell games with corporations to avoid paying debts the courts have ordered them to pay. "I have no assets, so I can´t pay, but I run the major language school chain, which owes you rent from 2012."

They should charge him what he owes with compound interest, inflation and a very hefty fine. He's much more productive to the Spanish economy that way.

Only if he doesn't pay should he go to jail.

 

[Johnny]

They should charge him what he owes with compound interest, inflation and a very hefty fine. He's much more productive to the Spanish economy that way.

Only if he doesn't pay should he go to jail.

All of the above has already been paid.