Footballers Wages
Discussion
So, you're Gareth Bale and have just landed your new £300,000/ week job.
I know it is small beer for most of you Directors on here, but for a mere mortal like me it is a mind bogging amount of money, so how do you go about managing it? Does the boss come around on a Friday with the wage slips? It would take a matter of hours to fill your ISA and pension allowances, then what do you do with the rest if you wanted to be even moderately sensible with it?
I know it is small beer for most of you Directors on here, but for a mere mortal like me it is a mind bogging amount of money, so how do you go about managing it? Does the boss come around on a Friday with the wage slips? It would take a matter of hours to fill your ISA and pension allowances, then what do you do with the rest if you wanted to be even moderately sensible with it?
bogie said:
nice tax bill ...I bet the tax man isn't complaining how a few footballers pay more tax than millions of people combined..and unlike car drivers, its a bit harder for footballers to base themselves out of tax havens whilst they are playing....
Didn't Rangers FC try something clever re: tax "planning"?http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west...
You don't see it. All your income streams from the club, sponsorship, copyrights, etc are paid to your financial managers in a variety of exotic and yet tax efficient locations. The managers - usually an accountancy firm or a bank - pay all your bills, and make sure there's a bit of ready cash to hand for you if you really want it. In practice, the only times you need actual cash are for those kinds of transactions which are, er, exclusively person-to-person cash based. Day to day worst case is you bring out your Amex, but 99% of the time it's either dealt with on account, or by your minders, or is a freeby.
The finance managers sit down with you whenever you want to and make recommendations where to put the cash on investment, or follow your directions.
The finance managers sit down with you whenever you want to and make recommendations where to put the cash on investment, or follow your directions.
I'd guess UK players at least are PAYE like the rest of us, or at least 'our' employees for the powerfully... anyway, their non-core income will more than likely be taken care of via some sort of Limited Company they own.
I'd guess their tax affairs are kept plain and simple and more importantly transparent, their profile / image is everything - can you imagine the headlines? "Footballer on £100k a week cheats UK taxpayer!" and their lucrative sponsor deals will be getting pulled left-right-centre.
In general terms... perhaps not very well, when I worked at RBS Finance we had a well-known Premier League / International player as a client (via Coutts) I never spoke to him, but his contact next door in Coutts, would occasionally call me up, ask for lists of assets / balances etc from a list of our reference numbers, mostly high-end cars, he'd call back after a few days asking for settlement figures as he'd given half of them away to friends, or swapped them with other players etc.
I'd guess their tax affairs are kept plain and simple and more importantly transparent, their profile / image is everything - can you imagine the headlines? "Footballer on £100k a week cheats UK taxpayer!" and their lucrative sponsor deals will be getting pulled left-right-centre.
In general terms... perhaps not very well, when I worked at RBS Finance we had a well-known Premier League / International player as a client (via Coutts) I never spoke to him, but his contact next door in Coutts, would occasionally call me up, ask for lists of assets / balances etc from a list of our reference numbers, mostly high-end cars, he'd call back after a few days asking for settlement figures as he'd given half of them away to friends, or swapped them with other players etc.
Very few Premiership players are taxed under PAYE. Most of them have their contracts and income massaged through off shore companies. It is one of the greatest but unreported (generally) tax avoidance stories around.
Politicians are very reluctant to properly tackle the various scams and schemes that are part and parcel of soccer club finances because they know any attack on "the beautiful game" would be unpopular with voters.
The only reason Rangers was tackled was because they were so blatant about how they were avoiding tax on the payments they made to the players (and others).
HMRC would much prefer to attack local cricket clubs who fail to deduct PAYE on bar staff and ground keepers. Much easier and far less likely to upset the proletariat.
Politicians are very reluctant to properly tackle the various scams and schemes that are part and parcel of soccer club finances because they know any attack on "the beautiful game" would be unpopular with voters.
The only reason Rangers was tackled was because they were so blatant about how they were avoiding tax on the payments they made to the players (and others).
HMRC would much prefer to attack local cricket clubs who fail to deduct PAYE on bar staff and ground keepers. Much easier and far less likely to upset the proletariat.
dozen said:
And that shows just how screwed up football is...Basic Pay: £720,287.
Accommodation: £20,000
M.P Bonus: £7,000
Total Income: £747,287
FA Fine: £24.00
I'll bet he'll really miss that £24.
There's a few premier league team footballers at the golf club where I'm a member. They have very nice desireable cars..Bently Continentals, DB V8s, Ferraris etc... and they change them very often. I asked one of them about the finances of their cars. He said that they are offered cars by the manufacturers at a flat cost of £1000 per month for a year, and the only things he pays for are insurance, road fund license and petrol. All other costs with the cars are paid by another source. Nice if you can get it!
R.
R.
dozen said:
That makes me so depressed. I know he probably earns way more back in sponsorships etc etc. But his net is 15 years at the GROSS national average annual of £26k! In a month!I find the whole football thing ridiculous, one of my companies carried out a fair bit of work for our local football club and it cost me a fortune in legal fees to get paid, meanwhile the club that announced it had financial troubles paid a £50K bonus to each of their players. I was incandescent and ramped up the legal proceedings fortunately I got my money. About a year later they asked me to do some more work and I said yes if you pay me up-front to which they declined, needless to say every local supplier didn't get paid at all.
The Leaper said:
There's a few premier league team footballers at the golf club where I'm a member. They have very nice desireable cars..Bently Continentals, DB V8s, Ferraris etc... and they change them very often. I asked one of them about the finances of their cars. He said that they are offered cars by the manufacturers at a flat cost of £1000 per month for a year, and the only things he pays for are insurance, road fund license and petrol. All other costs with the cars are paid by another source. Nice if you can get it!
R.
Same with mobile phones, according to The Secret Footballer.R.
£20 a month buys you unlimited minutes to anywhere, texts and bandwidth with the latest handset.
You'd have to imagine that part of their contract involves them being paid to a company - Wayne Rooney Enterprises, for example so as to avoid PAYE and they take profits from that company.
If only it were so simple. That wouldn't work for most footballers as they are actually signed up by the club and are not allowed "trade" with anyone else. So it is highly unlikely that they could show they were properly trading entities.
However, as I said earlier, they can still avoid tax by being employees of companies registered in tax havens.
However, as I said earlier, they can still avoid tax by being employees of companies registered in tax havens.
I believe many aren't paid this as salary - the majority have their image rights owned by off-shore companies, and most of the salary is payment for the right to use the player's name, rather than salary. The small amount of salary that is paid has tax paid under PAYE. Interestingly, it's still very common for professional footballers to be paid 2 weeks in advance, not a month in arrears like the rest of us... to goes back to the days when they were paid very little and were given a helping hand when they turned professional. How times change.
Megaflow said:
dozen said:
And that shows just how screwed up football is...Basic Pay: £720,287.
Accommodation: £20,000
M.P Bonus: £7,000
Total Income: £747,287
FA Fine: £24.00
I'll bet he'll really miss that £24.
blindswelledrat said:
Megaflow said:
dozen said:
And that shows just how screwed up football is...Basic Pay: £720,287.
Accommodation: £20,000
M.P Bonus: £7,000
Total Income: £747,287
FA Fine: £24.00
I'll bet he'll really miss that £24.
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