http://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1e8ncw/explaining_the_falcao_move_to_monaco/

Honestly, i didn't realize this. It's a shame that players who sign agreements years ago are basically held prisoner by them. Now i will never, ever make fun of players like Falcao, Hulk and others in this situation for where they play... they have very limited choices.

Please read this.

Also, i don't know the handle here of the person who posted this on the other site. Come here and take a bow my man. This is truly a great post from you.

Great read. I don't think Falcao's situation is that bad, Monaco seem to be building a nice team for the future and his wages will be ridiculously high, seriously. Hulk's however.... That's just a horrible situation to be in.

Except this article is wrong, because a player who has his registration rights owned by a third has to agree in order to move to a team.

Also, Falcao will have to pay income tax in Spain for five years if he goes to Monaco as Spanish law declares individuals who move to a tax haven as Spanish tax residents for the next 5 years.

He's not Spanish or EU free... he's Colombian. He owes no taxes to Spain once he stops working there.

Also, the player can choose to forego his approval rights if he sells it for consideration (cash).... which happens often. You can sign away things if you want to and more than a few players do.

It doesn't matter where he is from. He is now a Spanish tax resident and tax law applies to tax residents, not citizens only. If he moves to a tax haven, he'll have to pay taxes in Spain for 5 more years. it's an anti-tax haven rule, Spain has dozens of them. I can post you the article of the law if you don't believe me.

Never heard about that second point but it sounds a bit illegal.

Don't be surprised if you hear the same about Neymar in the coming years, whose 40% of his economic right is owned by DIS Agency.

This is a very common practice in South America sadly.

You're wrong free. It's only if you want to maintain residency in Spain or France for example that you remain under their tax umbrella... as a non-citizen, you are not compelled to maintain residency. Once you stop working in the country, you can immediately rescind the residency at the end of the fiscal year if you've been there for over 6 months or immediately for any period less than 6 months of that fiscal year. Under no circumstance do you continue to pay taxes beyond the fiscal year in question.

I'm 100% certain of this. I spent half my career as an expat in various countries and my industry makes it very critical to understand wealth tax regulations.

free_cat wrote:It doesn't matter where he is from. He is now a Spanish tax resident and tax law applies to tax residents, not citizens only. If he moves to a tax haven, he'll have to pay taxes in Spain for 5 more years. it's an anti-tax haven rule, Spain has dozens of them. I can post you the article of the law if you don't believe me.

Never heard about that second point but it sounds a bit illegal.

This sounds like a ridiculous rule considering he is not a Spanish national. Is there a minimum time he has to be a resident for that rule to kick in? What if he doesn't owe Spain any taxes before he moves? Would he still have to pay for 5 years?

sportsczy wrote:You're wrong free. It's only if you want to maintain residency in Spain or France for example that you remain under their tax umbrella... as a non-citizen, you are not compelled to maintain residency. Once you stop working in the country, you can immediately rescind the residency at the end of the fiscal year if you've been there for over 6 months or immediately for any period less than 6 months of that fiscal year. Under no circumstance do you continue to pay taxes beyond the fiscal year in question.

I'm 100% certain of this. I spent half my career as an expat in various countries and my industry makes it very critical to understand wealth tax regulations.

This makes much more sense. Also sounds much more fair.

I think you are right and it only affects to Spanish nationals.

I think you are right and it only affects to Spanish nationals.

Yeah... i had the same problem in France when they announced the 75% tax bracket (that never passed thank gawd). I had to leave for England so that i didn't get tagged with it for living here more than 6 months. I needed to get rid of my residency ASAP. Scared the heck out of me. We checked out all the neighboring countries to see what our options were. That's why i'm pretty current.

Yes, I checked out the law and it's only for nationals, sorry for the misunderstanding. But if Messi or Villa where to sign for Monaco, this law would apply and they would have to pay taxes in Spain for 5 more years.

As long as they're Spanish, absolutely.

Top reason why a lot of players bolt to Russia for the money... they have a flat tax rate of 13%. Spain used to have the "Bekham tax law"... but that stopped recently.

So...

what if nobody is willing to pay 60m euros for Falcao? He is 27, his value won't grow any higher. Should the owners of his rights accept a loss or keep him at Atletico and hope a 60m offer comes in later?

These third-party ownerships are really bad, by the way, I hope they get banned soon - or they banned already? If I understand this right, Atletico have a player here whom they cannot sell unless that third-party majority owner agrees to the sale.

Also, it could be that Falcao does not want to move to Monaco. A player cannot be forced to join a club against his will, although almost always they accept whatever is the best-paying move for them, so usually this isn't a problem. But I doubt that Falcao fancies playing for Monaco.

What I'm also wondering that what if a player with third-party ownership becomes a free-agent and wishes to join a new club. Does that new club still have to buy out that third-party ownership, i.e. is the player not really a free-agent after all, despite having no club paying him wages? So a third-party owned player could have his career ruined if his third-party owner stubbornly says "No, I won't sell you for less than 10m despite you currently have no club" and that 10m offer never comes in?

yeah... but Falcao has already agreed to the move. Mendes was in Monaco to finalize the paperwork on Monday. It will be made official at the end of the season.

Monaco is also looking to buy Hulk who is under a similar thing. Tevez is the preference.. but Hulk is the second option.

Falcao may leave for Madrid in January and Tevez would be the man after Falcao leaves.

Not sure if we would pull the trigger on Falcao in the winter. I guess it would depend on how desperate we are by that time.

there is no Madrid clause in Falcao's deal with Monaco according to the lastest reports about the pre season deal he signed on Monday. It's something the player wanted but MOnaco dont want to look stupid in december

It's still an absolute abomination for this to happen

AVB said the reason it was hard to sign Damiao in the winter was because of "third party" issues.

This seems pretty ridiculous...

Raptor... read this article. It explains the 3rd part thing.

Bumping this because i think the same article just got posted. Should probably merge.

If only the players got to choose where they could move to, then I'm sure every player would probably want to be owned by a 3rd party.

MERGE! Didn't see this earlier.