Dozens of leading English soccer players, including Manchester United star Wayne Rooney, are using complex tax avoidance schemes that legally allow them to dodge millions of pounds (dollars) in tax, it emerged Sunday.
Rooney was able to save $950,000 (£600,000) over the past two years with one of the schemes, and the issue has risen to such a scale that the UK tax department is demanding $158 million (£100 million) from English Premier League clubs on behalf of their players.
According to an investigation by The (London) Sunday Times, Rooney is among a number of players paying as little as two percent on their earnings, while another 55 are saving 22 percent by receiving a substantial proportion of their total earnings via an image rights company.
The players can avoid tax by having their “image rights” earnings at a club — like those from shirts sold with their name on the back — as royalties paid into a company owned by the player, which is liable for corporation tax of just 28 percent, rather than 50 percent income tax.