Italian Tax Man Renews Agreement With Soccer Clubs

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News, Brussels

14 December 2011

The Italian Revenue Agency has signed a protocol with the Italian national football federation which will renew, until February 28, 2013, regulation and control over the tax affairs and fiscal compliance of the clubs within the football federation’s ambit.

The agreement runs for a further period of one year, after which both sides can determine whether to renew their ‘teamwork’ for a further period. Within the agreement, both the Agency and the federation agree to ensure the financial regularity of the clubs playing in that federation’s leagues.

Within the agreement, as in previous years, the alliance between the Agency and the federation has the objective of exchanging openly all of the information necessary to verify and check on whether, or not, the clubs are respecting their tax obligations.

In the ‘first half’ of the agreement, the federation will provide a list to the Agency of the professional clubs’ corporate details, together with their tax and value-added tax (VAT) codes.

In the ‘second half’, the Agency will proceed to check whether the clubs are up-to-date on their payments of national and regional corporate income tax, VAT and individual income tax for their players, as contained within their annual tax returns for 2009 and 2010. The Agency will then provide, by May 31 next year, the results of the clubs’ tax assessments for the years between 2005 and 2009.

The agreement this year also contains, as last year, a privacy clause which specifies that the exchange of information will take place by protected means that guarantee the maximum confidentiality.

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