Ronaldo denies tax fraud complaint

Cristiano Ronaldo’s representatives have strongly denied an accusation that the Real Madrid forward concealed earnings and defrauded the Spanish tax authorities out of €14.7million.

Earlier on Tuesday, Prosecutors in Madrid filed a complaint to a court in Pozuelo de Alarcon that accused the four-time Ballon d’Or winner of a “voluntary” and “conscious” breach of his tax obligations.

The complaint suggested Ronaldo had created a “business structure” in 2010 to conceal earnings from image rights between 2011 and 2014.

However, Gestifute – the company owned by the 32-year-old’s agent Jorge Mendes – issued a statement detailing their client’s arrangements for payments related to his image rights and insisted “there has never been concealment, or the slightest intention to conceal”.

Gestifute said the company, Tollin, does not amount to an offshore structure for evading taxes and was established in 2004 when Ronaldo signed for Manchester United.

“The Public Prosecutor has filed today a complaint against Cristiano Ronaldo and not a claim, which implies a substantial change,” the statement read.

“The Public Prosecutor understands that CR [Ronaldo] is participating in an offshore structure, similar to that of other players, when most of the revenues were obtained directly by the player, without the participation of any of his societies.

“The rest of his revenues were paid to the player and declared in Spain according to the terms that the player’s advisors considered applicable.

“There is no offshore structure for evading taxes. Tollin is 100 per cent owned by Cristiano Ronaldo since its foundation in 2004. It was founded when the player arrived at Manchester United, six years before his signing for Real Madrid, and the net profits were €12.753.685,28 euros.”

Gestifute then detailed Tollin’s distribution of taxes during his time in England before insisting no altered arrangements were put in place when Ronaldo made a then-world record move to Madrid in 2009.

The statement continued: “When Cristiano Ronaldo signed for Real Madrid, he maintained the same structure he had in UK. No other structure was created at that moment.

“Throughout all of the above mentioned years, CR never had a tax problem, contrary to what the Spanish Prosecutors insinuates. All contractual modifications to [the] structure have been made to guarantee that the incomes fully observe the Spanish tax regulation.”

The statement went on to detail Ronaldo’s previous co-operation with the Spanish tax authorities and concluded: “The declared amount can be discussed, but it is clear that the football player did not try to evade taxes.”