Agassi must pay taxes

The tennis player could not compete with the British Ministry of Finance, the Chamber of the Great Britain, made a decision on the claim of the famous tennis player Andre Agassi, awarding the victory in the country's head of the country's financial department Gordon Brown. Since the trial concerned the funds received by the tennis player in 1998, when Agassi left the struggle for the Wimbledon Cup in the second circle, he will have to pay only 27.5 thousand pounds to the treasury, but this case is a precedent.

If the result of the process is different, and HM Revenue & Customs, the management of Her Majesty in taxes and customs fees, would have to be returned to foreign athletes and pop stars about 500 million pounds. But now the tax authority may demand about 50 million pounds of arrears from foreign stars: while the former Wimbledon champion was dragging around the courts, many of them have not paid tax established in Britain, waiting for a verdict.

6 years after the start of the proceedings, the House of Lords decided that persons who are not residents of Great Britain are obliged to pay British taxes on advertising shares and sponsorship transactions with the participation of stars for the whole time that they conduct their activities on the territory of the United Kingdom. These rules also apply to foreign companies to pay foreigners in the UK, even in cases where the money itself does not enter the country at all.

“The legislation was changed back in 1988, when, after several concerts of Michael Jackson, which he gave in the UK, tax services had problems with the collection of taxes from the singer,” explained the representative of the Grant Thornton consulting group Michael Warberton. -Foreign representatives of show business received giant profits in our country, and British tax services did not receive money because of this, therefore it was decided to levy tax from the amounts that the speakers received for performances in the UK. Relatively recently, Gordon Brown, wanting to increase the income of the treasury, expanded the effect of this rule on funds paid by foreign stars by foreign companies. This money is subject to taxation, even if they have never entered the country. ”

Initially, the case of Agassi was considered by special authorities involved in the decision of the taxation in the field of taxation, and their decision was in favor of the tax service. He lost the tennis player in the highest court, but in the appeal he managed to win. Now the House of Lords, which in the UK is the highest appeal, again issued a verdict in favor of the tax authorities. According to this decision, funds paid by the American AGASSI Enterprises, owned by a tennis player, should be considered as Agassi personally paid.

However, the representative of Tenon Media's consulting agassi Julian Hedley does not lose hope. “This is just a stage of much more large -scale trial. Nothing is completely decided, ”he said.

05/22/2006 / Yan Kovi / London Material published in the newspaper No. 85 dated 05.23.2006.