Earlier today, it was reported in the Spanish media that Messi and his father, Jorge Horacio, swindled up to 4 million euros in taxes from the sale of the Argentinian's image rights.
The allegations claimed that the Barcelona star evaded taxes by moving operations to companies based outside of Spain.
However, Messi took to his official Facebook page to refute the claims :
"We have learned through the media about the claim filed by the Spanish tax authorities. We are surprised about this news, because we have not committed any infringement. We have always fulfilled all of our tax obligations, following the advice of our tax consultants, who will take care of clarifying this situation.”
The paper El Periodico, which broke the story, quoted their source as saying the alleged tax evasion "consisted of simulating the assignment of image rights to front companies based in tax havens [Belize, Uruguay] and, at the same time, formalising contracts of licensing, agency or benefit from services between these companies, and other such instruments domiciled in convenient jurisdictions [the UK, Switzerland]. This was done with the intended and successful aim that the incomes would move from countries where the companies or entities were based, to companies domiciled in tax havens, without being submitted to any taxation and, furthermore, with total opacity towards the Spanish Tax Authorities. The beneficiary of these incomes was no other than the person served - Lionel A. Messi".
Messi could stand to spend up to 6 years in prison for tax evasion according to Spanish law.
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