Cristiano Ronaldo had to testify in front of the judge after a prosecutor report accusing him the intention of evading taxes. The Portuguese player declined to make a statement and distributed a press release instead, affirming that he is innocent and that he didn’t evade taxes.
In the statement the Portuguese star highlights:” The Spanish Tax Office knows in detail my income, be we gave them all the necessary information. I have never hidden anything nor I tried to evade taxes. I’ve never evaded taxes. I always do my tax return because I think we all have to declare and pay taxes according to your income. Those who know me know that I asked to my advisers to have everything correctly paid because I do not want problems “, Cristiano Ronaldo affirmed.
He also added: “When I signed with Real Madrid I kept the same image rights as when I played in England. The lawyers that Manchester United recommended me created this structure in 2004, a long time before I took the decision to come to Spain. It was verified by the English Tax office who affirmed that it was legal and legitime”, the Portuguese player said.
The player explains the structure who manages his image rights are the same in the period 2010-2014- in which the prosecution acuses Cristiano because of the creation of a corporate structure with the aim of defrauding €14.7M in a voluntary way, than in the period 2014-2009. According to Cristiano, between both periodos there are only two differences:” An entity was suppressed and this doesn’t matter because I was not residing in Spain and that I earned all of the image rights while I was at Real Madrid with the aim of paying the Spanish taxes”, he affirmed.
The press release concludes:” It’s time to let the justice work, I believe and hope that there is a fair decision. In order to avoid unnecessary pressure I have decided that I will not make any further statements about this topic until there is a final decision“, Cristiano Ronaldo said.
