Cristiano Ronaldo Charged with $16.5 Million in Tax Fraud

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The Portugal captain has been accused by Madrid's regional state prosecutor of four counts of tax fraud relating to image rights payments - which have been denied by Ronaldo's representatives.

This is far from the first case of alleged tax evasion involving football stars in Spain.

Prosecutors in Spain allege the Real Madrid player defrauded the government of about $16 million in taxes from 2011 to 2014.

Ronaldo faces four charges regarding tax returns filed from 2011 to 2014, with the prosecutor alleging that the 2016 Ballon D'Or victor defrauded Spain out of some 14.7 million Euros in unpaid taxes.

According to Forbes, Cristiano is the world's highest-paid athlete for 2017, having earned £73m previous year from salary, bonuses and endorsements.

It has also been claimed that Ronaldo reported income as coming from real estate, which reduced his tax rate significantly.

The prosecutor, who cites in his complaint the recent judgment of the Spanish Supreme Court against Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi, according to Marca, stress that Ronaldo has taken advantage of a corporate structure created in 2010 to hide the revenues generated in Spain from his image rights.

According to the authorities, Ronaldo "intentionally" failed to declare $31.8 million he made from the cession of image rights from 2015-20 to another Spanish company.

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The prosecutor accused the Portuguese player of declaring just $12.8 million earned during the three-year period when Ronaldo's actual income was about $48 million.

Despite the accusations, Ronaldo's agents, GestiFute, maintain that he is up to date on his taxes.

Ronaldo's agency had announced earlier that he pay his taxes constantly his taxes.

"Real Madrid is absolutely convinced that our player, Cristiano Ronaldo, will prove his total innocence", it added.

Last month, tax officials said Ronaldo had adjusted his tax declarations and paid an extra €6m (£5.3m) in 2014.

Messi and his father were first accused by a state prosecutor of tax fraud in June 2013.

It said that the footballer had not hidden any income from the tax authorities or defrauded Spain.

Messi was found guilty last year and sentenced to 21 months in jail, although never spent a single day behind bars due to the way that Spain's justice system allows for any sentence under two years to be spent on probation.

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