IMAGE-RIGHTS

Football may not be coming home, but there is always tax to consider. Paul Pritchard (FTI Consulting) reviews the tax issues on player transfers, including the reinvestment relief on players, employment tax issues with buyout and the withholding of tax on image rights payments.

New figures show that HMRC is ramping up investigations into footballers, agents and football clubs. In particular, the number of investigations into footballers has tripled in the year to March 2020. The main areas of focus are payments made for players' image rights and the tax treatment of agents' fees.