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Ronaldo accepts €18.8m fine in tax evasion case

Portuguese football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has agreed to accept an €18.8m (£16.4m, $21.8m) fine and a suspended jail sentence to settle tax evasion charges, according to media reports.

Another Real Madrid star faces jail term over tax fraud

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Spanish authorities first charged Ronaldo last year of evading €14.7m in taxes through shell companies based in the British Virgin Islands and Ireland.

Further, prosecutors said Ronaldo only declared €11.5m of Spanish-related income between 2011 to 2014, when his actual earnings were about €43m.

Ronaldo, who has always denied the charges, has now agreed to pay €18.8m to settle the matter, according to a report by the BBC.

The 33-year-old, who won Best Footballer of the Year in 2017, has also agreed to a two-year prison sentence, but will not have to serve it as Spanish law states that a sentence under two years for a first offence can be served on probation.

In June 2017, Ronaldo offered to pay €14m to settle the charges but the government rejected the offer.

Football tax evasion

Ronaldo is by no means the only international football star to face allegations of tax avoidance.

Lionel Messi, his Barcelona and La Liga rival, was handed a 21-month prison sentence for tax fraud for evading €4.1m in taxes between 2007 and 2009.

His prison sentence was replaced with a €255,000 fine. Messi and his father, who was also indicted, had already made a €5m “corrective payment” in August 2013.

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