Hacienda returns two million euros to Cristiano Ronaldo and leaves the fine at 16,7

It considers that it paid that amount in taxes when yielding its rights of image to Peter Lim

The judge leaves Jorge Mendes and the rest of his advisors without responsibility

Cristiano Ronaldo accepts two years in prison and pay 18.8 million to the Treasury

Cristiano diverted to a tax haven at least 150 million to hide income for image rights

The pact with the Tax Agency has gone to Cristiano Ronaldo to return. Hacienda has just reimbursed the former Real Madrid striker with more than two million euros after concluding that he paid that figure in VAT in Spain for the transfer of his image rights to businessman Peter Lim without having a legal obligation to do so. . Thus, the agreement between the player of the Juventus of Turin and the Treasury, unveiled exclusively by EL MUNDO and closed two months ago at 18.8 million euros, is reduced at the last minute to just 16.7. This newspaper has had access to the liquidation practiced a few days ago by the Treasury to the player, who had already disbursed 13.4 million euros and was preparing to pay the remaining amount during the next weeks. According to the Tax Agency, Ronaldo ceded the exploitation of its image rights in Spain in December 2014 to the companies Arnel Services, SA, and Adifore Finance, LTD, located in the British Virgin Islands and property, through the company Mint Media , of businessman Peter Lim, owner of Valencia. The goal of the player with this operation was to enhance its image in Asia from the hand of his friend Lim.After examining this operation, the Treasury considers that «is not subject to VAT because they are services provided outside the territory of application of the tax » Taking into account that Ronaldo made a supplementary declaration in January 2017 for the year 2014 and paid the VAT of the referred transaction, the Treasury now proceeds to its immediate return. Specifically, 2,094,200.72 euros have already been reimbursed. At that time and advised by the firm Baker & McKenzie, decided to pay VAT. «Given the media uproar that has been generated in relation to my tax issues and with the intention that there is no doubt of my intention to fully comply with my tax obligations and be totally transparent with the Spanish tax administration,» he said before the Treasury in that regularization voluntarily. With this return and the payment of the outstanding amount to reach 16.7 million euros, the agreement between Ronaldo and the Treasury is completely sealed in the absence of formalizing the agreement in a hearing before the Provincial Court of Madrid. In it the Portuguese footballer will be found guilty of the commission of four tax crimes for the taxation of his millionaire image rights during his time at Real Madrid and will admit a two-year prison sentence that will not entail compliance. In this view Ronaldo will try to replace the penalty by a fine of 350,000 euros. In exchange, Ronaldo has managed to reduce the fraud attributed to him by the Treasury, initially set at 14.7 million euros, less than half (5 , 6). But it is that counting the sanction and interests, you will only have to pay a little more than the amount set as evaded by the Treasury. If this agreement had not crystallized, managed on behalf of Ronaldo by the lawyer José Antonio Choclán and the tax attorney Manuel De Vicente Tutor, the player would have faced a criminal trial and a penalty that, in the worst scenario for him could be around 100 millions of euros. The agreement between Ronaldo and the Treasury has caused an immediate judicial consequence in its environment. His agent Jorge Mendes and the person in charge of their sponsorships, Luis Correia, have just been dismissed by the number one Instruction Court of Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid). But, in addition, the other great star of Mendes inspected in Spain for his rights of image, the Colombian James Rodriguez, has managed to avoid a more than likely complaint for tax offense and settle his problem with a millionaire fine of 11.65 million euros, which will pay, however, by administrative means. And the fact is that the Treasury has appreciated the collaboration provided by Mendes in the cases of its players when accepting agreements of conformity like the one subscribed also by the Monaco forward Radamel Falcao. All these agreements endorse the information uncovered by EL MUNDO and the rest of the members of the EIC network through the Football Leaks documents obtained by Der Spiegel.