The Madrid Provincial Prosecutor's Office has requested a prison sentence of four years and nine months for Carlo Ancelotti, coach of Real Madrid, for defrauding the public treasury of 1,062,079 euros in the financial years 2014 (386,361 euros) and 2015 (675,718 euros). . The public prosecutor's office accuses him of two crimes against the Ministry of Finance, since he only recorded the salaries in his income tax returns, despite the fact that he himself confirmed his status as a taxpayer resident in Spain and stated that his address was in Madrid. the personal work received from Real Madrid. This meant he lost the income from the exploitation of his image rights, which he had transferred to other companies.
The indictment states that on July 4, 2013, Ancelotti signed an employment contract as coach of Real Madrid for the period between July 5, 2013 and June 30, 2016, “in which he sets out his remuneration for this period of the transfer The image rights go to the association.” In addition, it is said that the defendant began working and living in Spain in July 2013 and established a property in a central square in Madrid as his residence and habitual residence. However, when the coach ended his relationship with Real Madrid “prematurely” on May 25, 2015, he had rented out the house until October of the same year, so in 2015 “Spain was his main center of personal and economic interests”.
During his time in court, in July 2021, Ancelotti admitted before Judge Inmaculada Lova Ruiz that he had not paid taxes correctly for the 2014 financial year, but attributed this irregularity to poor advice. To correct the mistake, the coach of the white team actually offered to pay the amount of almost 300,000 euros that he is said to have defrauded this year.
However, Ancelotti did not comment on 2015, the year he was sacked as Real Madrid coach. In this sense, the current defendant defended that he had not spent 183 days in Spain – the minimum time established to consider a person resident in the national territory – but 158 days, which he assured, he could prove. Legal sources consulted by EL PAÍS indicate that this second exercise is perhaps the most controversial in the trial, since it was archived during the investigation but resumed after the prosecution's appeal.
The Madrid coach referred to this year on Wednesday evening, immediately after securing his place in the Champions League quarter-finals (1-1 against Leipzig): “It's an old story that started eight years ago Statement from 2015 when the prosecutor's office assumes that I was a resident of Spain. But I don't think I was a resident back then. I have already paid the fine. The money is already with the public prosecutor. The lawyers are talking to find a solution. “I am convinced that I am innocent because I was not a resident in 2015. “Let’s see what the judge decides,” he said laconically.
Transfer of image rights
In its indictment, the State Ministry emphasizes that “in order to avoid taxation of the income from the image rights” received by both Real Madrid and other brands for various events, the coach resorted to a “complex” and “confusing” network of foundations and Companies applied to channel the collection of image rights. In this way, it “simulated” the transfer of its image rights to companies that lacked “real activity” and exploitation capacity and were based outside Spain, “and thus sought opacity towards the Spanish treasury and the concealment of the true beneficiary of the revenues.” from his image rights, so that neither he nor any of these companies would have to pay taxes on the large amounts he receives in Spain or outside our country.
According to the public prosecutor's office, on July 1, 2013, Ancelotti signed a private contract in which he transferred his image rights to the company Vapia Limited for a period of ten years and at a price of 25,000,000 euros. A day later, the company appointed the Real Madrid coach as its representative and “granted him maximum powers to manage his image rights.” Later, at an unspecified date, an annex to the agreement was formalized which changed the term of the agreement, shortening it to three years and reducing the purchase price of the image rights to one million euros.
On July 4, 2013, “in parallel” to his signing as coach of Real Madrid, the defendant was granted a private contract with the club in which he gave 50% of his image rights to the sports company between July 5, 2013 and June 30 transmitted. 2016. The other 50% was held by an “unnamed” and “undetermined” company acting on behalf of and on behalf of the Italian coach. This company turned out to be Vapia LLP, based in London, and not Vapia Limited, a company incorporated in the Virgin Islands, a fact that was not disclosed to Real Madrid until a year later. “In this way, the defendant exploited the company Vapia LLP to formally represent himself to Real Madrid as the owner of the image rights, although these had not even been formally attributed to him since the above-mentioned transfer agreement of July 1st.”, 2013 was at Vapia Limited,” the letter said.
According to the public prosecutor's office, Ancelotti submitted his income tax self-assessment returns on time, in which he confirmed his status as a resident of Spain and gave as his address a property in a central square in Madrid, and only stated the personal remuneration he received from Real Madrid. However, she “omitted all income from the exploitation of her image rights (…) and thus came to declarations with negative ratios” with a negative balance of 39,575 euros in the 2014 financial year and 529,076 euros in 2015, amounts that she achieved in In both cases, the tax return is returned by the tax office.
The public prosecutor's office states that the income from the transfer of the image rights was income of 1,249,590 euros in 2014 and 2,959,768 euros in 2015, without Ancelotti or the other two companies paying taxes on these amounts would have paid. In addition, the technician also omitted the ownership of two properties abroad in his statements. After making the relevant adjustments, the Spanish Ministry of Finance estimated the loss suffered due to lost rents and income and refunds received at 1,062,079 euros (386,361 in the 2014 financial year and 675,718 in the 2015 financial year).
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