Girona FC footballer Oriol Romeu has dribbled two penaltiestreasury because, according to the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), “the taxpayer cannot be assumed to have advanced tax knowledge”. The facts focus on the year 2014, when the player, then owned by the Chelseawas transferred to Valencia i l’Stuttgart german That year, he defended the Spanish tax authorities in the documents to which he had access The Newspaper of Spainfrom the same publishing group as the Girona newspaperthe footballer did not pay what he was due from theProperty tax ni de l’Personal Income Tax (IRPF).
According to the Treasury in the court documents of the case, Romeu received almost 2 million euros in 2014: 916,667 euros from Stuttgart, 742,065 euros from Valencia and 294,875 euros from Chelsea. In addition, at that time he was attributed a patrimony of 1,778,771 euros to Spain and of 1,724,237 euros abroad, that is to say, between Germany and the Counting Unit. In total, more than 3.5 million euros. Romeu was signed in 2011 by Chelsea, a club that, two years later, decided to transfer him to Valencia. He stayed there for a season, and that summer, specifically on August 4, 2014, the player set course for the Bundesliga.
The loophole through which the Court considers that the player should not have known where he had to tax this income is based on the fact that, by residing in three different countries during the same year, he did not have the necessary “advanced tax knowledge” to know this . For a person to be taxed in a given country, he must reside there for more than half of the year, that is, 183 days, even if, as in the case of the ex-Blaugrana player, he changes his residence regularly , the place where you have spent the most time or where you have your usual address prevails.
In this way, it is considered proven that in 2014 the now footballer of Girona spent at least 172 days in Spain, 30 in the United Kingdom and a further 131 in Germany. It is unknown where he was for the remaining 32 days to reach the 365 that make up a year, explains the sentence to which El Periódico de España has had access, since neither the inspection has been able to determine it nor the athlete has wanted to clarify it “despite having requested it on repeated occasions”.
Pending final resolution
ofImageSport, the representation agency that works with the footballer, maintain that “Oriol Romeu has always met his tax obligations” and that “it is pending” that the case is finally resolved after “partially winning” the appeal presented to the justice For this 2014 financial year, Romeu had an open dispute with the Treasury over the personal income tax of 73,077 euros and a quota proposed for the taxation of his estate which, adding the successive late interest, reached 8,081 euros.
At the beginning of this 2023, in rulings on successive days of January 11 and 12 to which this newspaper has had access, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has annulled the possible sanctions, but has also recognized the obligation of the player to tax in Spain. To avoid this, the footballer’s defense used a certificate of tax residence in the United Kingdom, although, according to the Court, he did not try to carry out any self-assessment there either.
The Catalan Superior Court of Justice asserts that, despite the fact that the player tried to prove that his permanent address was in the United Kingdom, his version “is not credible”, since the address listed in theTax Agency Notices of Settlement, Proposed Penalty and Penalty Agreement were successfully served on his family members. The two decisions of the Catalan Supreme Court can be appealed in cassation before the supreme court.