I just read about this today:
www.goal.com/en-gb/live-update/1194/cris...-ronaldo-live-debate
...the law has changed in Spain, and from now, Cristiano Ronaldo be taxed 52% of his salary when before it was only 23%.
This is slightly inaccurate, apparently foreign workers in Spain were taxed at a flat rate of 24% rate due to a law which was dubbed "The Beckham Law" due to the fact that Beckham was one of the first foreigners to take advantage of it. However, under 'austerity' arrangements in Spain, this law has now been repealed, and the top rate of tax in Spain is now set by the federal government. In Madrid this is 52%, but in Catalunya it is as high as 56%.
www.totalfootballmadness.com/2012/01/09/...-the-premier-league/
La Liga had been living a charmed life under the old ‘Beckham Law’, introduced just before the former Manchester United midfielder joined Real Madrid in 2003.
Under that system foreign players only paid 24 per cent tax – which was lifted in 2010 – and this has now been replaced with the new system, clearing the way for English clubs to compete on an even footing with their Spanish counterparts.
Jose Maria Gay, economics professor at the University of Catalunya, told The Sun: ‘Now foreign players will be more expensive.
‘Before, thanks to the cushy Beckham Law, we were among those who paid the least in that area and now we are among those who pay the most.
‘It is 54 per cent — 56 per cent in Catalunya. The repeal of the Beckham Law along with the rise in income tax is a bad joke.’
56% is a whole lot of moolah to concede, now TFM is no math magician but looking at Ronaldo’s 2011 income, he made $38 million, and assuming the tax law kicked in last year he would have had to pay $21,280,000 in taxes.
According to another source, Messi earnt roughly $41,500,000 dollars in 2011, so under Catalunya tax regulations, he would pay $23,240,000 in tax.
Now this may all seem fairly trivial, it is after all just some people who kick a ball around being paid what would appear to be far too much to do it. But it's quite incredible and disgusting to me that nearly three-fifths of the money that Messi earns - and he only commands that sort of market value owing to the fact that he's a total genius and works incredibly hard at maximising his performance - is ultimately being filtered into the Bank of International Settlements through the Spanish taxation system. There is more information on how this works and occurs in practice here:
sanctumzone.co.uk/forum/General/35279-To...orld-Debt.html#35336
Obviously Ronaldo and Messi still have a phenomenal lifestyle and a brilliant life, but ultimately they are still being bled dry by the same greedy parasites that offer nothing of value to the human race whatsoever. And the social controllers are so good at getting us to fight amongst ourselves that when these people express any dissatisfaction with this, they are only likely to attract opprobrium from people in the street, who have been taught that paying taxes is simply a part of life, and, of course, have never heard of the Bank of International Settlements. So you have a situation like the following:
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/oct/13/rafael-nadal-uk-tax-queens
The world No2, Rafael Nadal, will not play at next year's Aegon Championships at Queen's Club, his traditional warm-up event before Wimbledon, due to the UK's tax demands.
Nadal, who won the tournament in 2008, will instead compete in the Gerry Weber Open at Halle in Germany, where he will receive a reported £750,000. However, he insisted that the appearance fee was not behind his decision, which was instead forced by British tax laws, which oblige foreign athletes to pay tax on their worldwide endorsements.
Nadal told the Times: "I like to play in all the tournaments where they really want me. It is good for tennis. There is a big change in Halle, they have wanted me to be there for the last few years but I really wanted to play in Queen's.
"The truth is, in the UK you have a big regime for tax, it's not about the money for playing. They [HMRC] take from the sponsors, from Babolat, from Nike and from my watches. This is very difficult. I am playing in the UK and losing money. I did a lot more for the last four years, but it is more and more difficult to play in the UK."
...which is quite ridiculous when you think about it. I fully support Nadal. A tennis player signs a contract with Nike. He receives money for this for promoting their products. He gets off a plane and lands on a different landmass. An organisation to which he has no affiliation or link whatsoever demands money from him, so that they can 'keep the economy running' (although it's fucked beyond repair and they have shown absolutely no ability whatsoever to do this job competently). If he doesn't pay it, he'll probably end up in court. In any sane language it'd be called the fucking mafia, but we call it 'democracy'!
