You could argue it the other way as well. The penalty is a small percentage of his earnings, it wouldn't bother him much if he got caught.
it is a 4m fraud he is facing trial for...he should be very bothered as I assume for such an amount, if found guilty, will result in jail
Surely it isnt just about the penalty, is there not a moral consideration? I'd like to think it's ignorance on his part and letting someone else look after his finances rather than pure ****ing greed.
And the negative publicity. Plus wouldnt he lose all sponsorship and endorsements so it would hit him a LOT harder than just a fine.
This is just the revenue in Spain contesting how his accountants have calculated his tax liabilities, things like this happen all the time, if the court finds against him he'll simply have to pay the tax and possibly a fine, there's no chance of him being banged up. Neither is it likely to have any effect all on his sponsorship deals.
Well if I was CEO of a company paying him shedloads for use of his image I'd 100% terminate the deal should he be found guilty. Tax fraud is a disgrace, simple as. Maybe that's why I'm not CEO.
Let him rot in jail for a year and then get rehabilitated at Hull City .......sometimes a sinner needs redemption.
But he's not going to be held personally responsible, he won't have a ****ing clue what they're talking about in court, the state prosecutor didn't even want him to attend the court case: "Although the state attorney had been in favor of exonerating the player, the Tax Agency insisted that he should be prosecuted." http://elpais.com/elpais/2015/06/10/inenglish/1433935729_245719.html
But he is responsible though isnt he? I dont expect him to understand the ins and outs of tax law but he should employ trustworthy people. A hell of a lot of famous rich people don't get tried for tax fraud.
So would I but I reckon he knew exactly what his accountant was trying to do. I'm very cynical when rich people pretend they don't have a clue about tax fraud.
The charges relate to the tax years ending 2007, 2008 and 2009, he won't have had a clue what was going on when he was 18 and had just started earning loads of money.
That's quite a naive way of looking at it. I'm 18 and I know about taxes; so do a lot of people I know that are my age. Sure, it might have been easy for him to be ignorant of the financial side of his career whilst focusing on playing football but that's not really an excuse for swindling the Spanish state out of millions.
It's one thing knowing that if you earn about £20k, you've got to pay about £3.5k in tax. It's another thing completely if you earn millions and have a team of people running companies in your name and all you're interested in is playing football. I've been running businesses for decades, I have a fairly good understanding of what I'm doing, but I've had tax schemes run on my behalf by accountants and I haven't the slightest idea how they work.
He hasn't really been either, his dad has, the state prosecutor saw absolutely no benefit in him being involved at all, the Spanish revenue are only insisting on him being included because it gets them press.
From the link above... Messi senior is alleged to have created the network of companies when Messi was still a minor. It was used to simulate the handing over of the player’s image rights, thus allowing him to pay less tax on the multi-million-euro advertising contracts he landed.
