The football legend allegedly defrauded Spanish authorities of €14.7m (£12.9m, $16.4m) between 2011 and 2014 after failing to declare earnings related to his image rights.
Between 2011 and 2014, Ronaldo filed earnings of €11.5m with Spain’s tax office, known as the Hacienda, instead of the €43m he actually earned over that period.
In a statement, the Prosecutor’s Office said Ronaldo had knowingly used a “business structure” where he set up a shell company in the British Virgin Islands in 2010 to hide the income he earned from image rights from the Spanish tax authorities.
“The accused made use of a corporate structure created in 2010 to hide from the tax authority income generated in Spain through image rights,” prosecutors said in a statement.
Ronaldo had failed to comply with his tax obligations in a manner that was both “voluntary” and “conscious”, they added.
Smokescreen
According to the statement, the footballer allegedly set up a web of companies that involved transferring his image rights from his BVI-based company to a second company in Ireland, with sole purpose of creating a “screen” to confuse the Spanish authorities.
The Hacienda also accused him of “voluntarily” refusing to include €28.4m of income linked to the sale of his image rights for the 2015 to 2020 period to a Spanish company.
Second tax fraudster
Spanish prosecutors have also indicted football player Predrag Mijatovic for tax fraud while allegedly working as an unlicensed football agent.
According to Spanish news agency IANS, the Prosecutor’s Office on Monday announced it will be indicting the Montenegro-born ex-footballer on charges of defrauding the country’s tax office of €189,535 during the 2011 tax year.
On 30 May, Spain’s financial crimes prosecution unit said it filed a complaint against Mijatovic at a Madrid court after a report was forwarded by the Hacienda.
The case relates to Mijatovic’s 2011 personal tax return statement, where he is accused of failing to declare his earnings from his activities as an intermediary and adviser in Spain’s football industry.
Mijatovic, dubbed ‘Pedja’, moved to Spain to play for Valencia in 1993. He later went on to play for Real Madrid between 1996 and 1999.
He retired to Valencia in 2004, where he began a career as an unlicensed football agent and informal intermediary, said IANS.
Football tax fraud
Ronaldo and Mijatovic’s indictments follow a string of other high-profile tax fraud cases in Spain such as Lionel Messi and Columbian Radamel Falcao, who have both fallen foul of Spain’s crackdown on tax evasion.
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