Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo appeared in the court on Monday for allegedly evading $17.3 million in taxes. The megastar who resides in a posh suburb of Madrid will be questioned by a court after he returns from his summer vacation and a promotional trip in China.
The 32 year old Portuguese star is the world’s highest paid athlete, according to the Forbes Magazine, has been accused of taking advantage of a company structure created in 2010 to hide income generated in Spain from his image rights from tax authorities.
According to the prosecutors, the shell company is based in the British Virgin Islands and another in Ireland which are well-known for low corporate tax rates.
Apart from that, they claim that Ronaldo only declared €11.5 million of Spanish-related income from the year of 2011 to 2014, while he had been earning around €43 million.
Also, they accuse him of “voluntarily” refusing to include €28.4 million in the income linked to the sale of his image rights for the 2015 to 2020 period to a Spanish company.
Ronaldo has defended himself, saying that his conscience is clear. -AFP
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