BBC - Lionel Messi investigated for tax fraud

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22877408

Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi and his father are being investigated in Spain for allegedly defrauding the state of more than 4m euros (£3.4m).

The Argentina forward and his father, Jorge, are suspected of filing fraudulent tax returns for 2007-09, Spanish tax officials say.

Discuss.

And Ronaldo is the bad guy

Lock him up.

Hope he gets the death penalty.

And anyone believing Messi, or his father, fill out their own tax papers is a complete moron. Probably a accountant/financial controller that screwed up, gets fired now and Messi paying the taxes anyways + a fine. I dont believe ANYONE would fraude with taxes these days, it always reveals.

To be fair Spain's tax system is pretty poorly enforced. Only reason these guys were caught is because they are public figures.

Regular folks are able to cheat the system pretty easily to make their total payouts cheaper.

You can't blame your accountant when you sign your tax returns... Also, every wealthy person i know tries to avoid taxes and almost always dances around the line of legal and illegal in doing so.

Not reporting assets that you feel are unlikely to be found is a very, very common practice.

Doesn't make Messi a bad guy. He just got caught and needs to pay the resulting fines. Most people understand the consequences... as long as you're able to make payment if caught, nobody cares tbh.

He has obviously been taking advice from Harry

Messi's people know what they were doing and subsequently, probably have made arrangements if things went sour. Nothing but paying a fine, hell, they might even get to pay in monthly increments too.

Offcourse you cant blame them - my family has a financial controller for several houses, incomes and investments, I dont do my own taxes but the controller does, I just sign it without checking. You would think someone getting paid that much money anually does his work correctly. This probably is regarding a second house in Argentina, or some money being transferred to a company run by Messi in Andorra, Monaco or something, wich was not supposed be done.

Then Messi needs to read what he is signing and read properly. Ignorance is not an excuse for not knowing the law.

Isnt Argentine Spanish vastly different from Spain Spanish? Thy could certainly plead language ignorance if they wanted to.

Doc wrote:Then Messi needs to read what he is signing and read properly. Ignorance is not an excuse for not knowing the law.

Exactly.

The other guy has no clue how the system works.

When tax agents knock in your house, there's gotta be something.

I hope messi didnt cheat though. He has a big reputation in line.

Messi wrote on his Facebook page:

Messi wrote: "We have just known through the media about the claim filed by the Spanish tax authorities. We are surprised about this news, because we have never committed any infringement.

"We have always fulfilled all our tax obligations, following the advice of our tax consultants who will take care in clarifying this situation."

Uli Hoeness' future prison wife.

Seems like Hoeness has been tapping up Messi all this while

VivaStPauli wrote:Uli Hoeness' future prison wife.

Post of the year.

He is Argentine. Of course there is tax fraud.

Jail him, end this Barca era once and for all 

This will all be solved within a few days with no penalty's/punishment. Not even sure whether this is true or not given that Messi or his father have not been informed...

Messi's off to Jail.

Torres will replace him and all will be right in the universe

Greed is such a devil, who knows, even family member can take advantage, let alone the number of parties involved in managing the ridiculous amount of money top footballers earn. These things usually end up with a minimal penalty even if found guilty anyway

Is this the same judicial system that destroyed doping evidence in Spanish sports? Yeah, I've got the feeling that Messi will be fine.

Finally, the squeaky clean Messi has gained some notoriety

Now he's truly a legend. The desperate government just wants some money and make an example of a prominent public figure. 

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22877408

"The player and his father are accused of three crimes of defrauding the state of taxes related to income from the use of his image.

They are suspected of using companies abroad - in Belize and Uruguay - to sell the rights to use the image.

The accusation is that with the help of firms based outside Spain, where he lives and plays club football, Messi and his father avoided paying more than 4m euros in tax."

I think Messi's entourage will get it taken care of. Speculations of jail time are just media hype.