Tax investigations into UK football clubs have brought in some £125m of tax in the year to 31 March 2023, up from £59m in the previous year, reports UHY Hacker Young. According to the firm, HMRC has been looking particularly at NICs on agents’ fees, which have typically been structured so that the club pays half of the fees on behalf of itself rather than the player (thus reducing any taxable benefit in kind for the player). HMRC now requires clubs to report agents’ fees on the P11d.
The firm also highlights the treatment of payments for image rights – where clubs often make payments to a player’s company rather than to them personally, again to side-step NICs. The suspicion here is that some of these payments could be over-inflated, effectively disguised remuneration arrangements.
Elliott Buss, partner at the firm and specialist in the taxation of sports clubs, said: ‘HMRC is really cracking down on the football industry to recover what it sees as a significant amount of unpaid tax.
‘The growing proportion of agents’ fees being paid by clubs is drawing the attention of the taxman to the possibility that not all tax due on these payments is being paid.’
Tax investigations into UK football clubs have brought in some £125m of tax in the year to 31 March 2023, up from £59m in the previous year, reports UHY Hacker Young. According to the firm, HMRC has been looking particularly at NICs on agents’ fees, which have typically been structured so that the club pays half of the fees on behalf of itself rather than the player (thus reducing any taxable benefit in kind for the player). HMRC now requires clubs to report agents’ fees on the P11d.
The firm also highlights the treatment of payments for image rights – where clubs often make payments to a player’s company rather than to them personally, again to side-step NICs. The suspicion here is that some of these payments could be over-inflated, effectively disguised remuneration arrangements.
Elliott Buss, partner at the firm and specialist in the taxation of sports clubs, said: ‘HMRC is really cracking down on the football industry to recover what it sees as a significant amount of unpaid tax.
‘The growing proportion of agents’ fees being paid by clubs is drawing the attention of the taxman to the possibility that not all tax due on these payments is being paid.’
