The Treasury opens another investigation against Barça for alleged irregularities in payments to agents

The Tax Agency has opened a new investigation against Fútbol Club Barcelona for its payments to the players' agents between 2015 and 2018. The club already managed to cancel a previous claim for the same reason on March 28, but, according to a resolution of the National Court to which El Confidencial has had access, the Treasury has returned to the fray with the notification of “new actions verification and investigation”.

The Treasury's thesis focuses on the fact that agents only work for the players and, therefore, these payments are still a way to increase the salary of the footballers themselves.. The Tax Agency clings to this reasoning to pursue two alleged irregularities: on the one hand, the club cannot deduct VAT from invoices with these intermediaries, and, on the other, the player must pay personal income tax or income tax. non-residents (IRNR) for this supposed hidden salary increase.

The judges viewed this type of claims favorably until last February, when the Supreme Court changed the rules of the game.. The judicial body focused on the procedural aspect, not on the substance of the debate, and concluded that the Treasury should have claimed the money through another means.. Despite being a technicality, this new doctrine has caused the cancellation of million-dollar claims to several clubs throughout 2023.

In the case of the Barcelona Football Club, the Central Economic Court (TEAC) annulled on March 28 a claim from the Treasury that exceeded 12 million euros: “Following the jurisprudence previously collected from the Supreme Court, the regularization carried out exceeds what was anticipated “, concluded the TEAC. “Based on the above, it is appropriate to cancel the adjustment referring to the regularization of payments made by the club to the players' agents”.

From the club, its directors denounce that, shortly after, the Treasury notified them of a new investigation “for the same concept and periods”. Specifically, for the IRNR that goes from July 2015 to June 2018: “The documentation on file has been incorporated into the administrative files of the inspection procedures followed with respect to the years in question [2015 to 2018] (… ), granting the process of disclosure and a deadline to formulate allegations.”. El Confidencial has contacted the Tax Agency to clarify what phase this new investigation is in, but has not made any statements..

Barça fears new investigations

The National Court collects Barça's complaints in an order dated September 1. This resolution is part of a parallel procedure by the IRNR from the years 2012 to 2015 in which, by applying the doctrine of the Supreme Court, the magistrates also annulled the corresponding inspection of June 14: “The Administration has exceeded the limits,” concluded in their sentence. The decision was a boost for the club, by canceling a claim of more than one million euros. But now, after notifying them of the opening of new actions by the IRNR from 2015 to 2018, Barça fears that the Treasury will also reopen those for these years.

In an attempt to avoid it, the club presented a new document before the National Court on June 30. “The Tax Agency has initiated new actions in order to dictate new settlement agreements [for the IRNR from 2015 to 2018], so it can reasonably be expected that, with respect to the IRNR corresponding to the periods in question here, the Administration will proceed in the same way [by the IRNR from 2012 to 2015]”, he warned.

Barça asked the magistrates to complement the sentence to make it clear that any action by the IRNR from 2012 to 2015 has already prescribed or, at a minimum, to point out that the resolution alone prevents “opening a new procedure in relation to the same issue.” “. The National Court rejects both possibilities in its order.

Regarding the request for prescription, they maintain that “the ruling is entirely upholding the claim of the plaintiff club”, which is why the requested supplement is “totally inconsequential”. And as for the references to the new Treasury investigation, they conclude that they have no value in this procedure: “The subsequent or hypothetical actions to which the plaintiff refers in relation to subsequent years are outside the scope of the present actions and, therefore therefore, of the content of the ruling of the sentence”.

This resolution leaves the way open for the new investigation by the Tax Agency, which will now take note of the Supreme Court's doctrine to avoid falling into the same mistake.. As for the possibility of opening another investigation into the previous exercises, it remains to be seen if this step is taken, which could affect other teams: as El Confidencial has been reporting, clubs such as Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid They have also benefited from that same doctrine throughout 2023 to annul million-dollar claims.