One Tenor and A Taxman

Lisa Ugur, Tax-news.com, London

31 July 2000

Luciano Pavarotti's famous voice could be heard in an Italian court last week - but the famous tenor gave a rather more subdued performance than usual as he was stung for almost US$12 million by the Italian taxman for not paying his dues.

Pavarotti is the latest in a long line of Italian celebrities who have had their collars felt. Alberto Tomba, the Italian ski champion, settled up earlier this year after the Italian courts set a date for a tax trial, and no doubt Pavarotti was anxious to escape the same fate as actress Sophia Loren, who was briefly jailed in the 1980's after a scuffle with the taxman. So Pavarotti agreed to cough up, saying 'I cannot live being thought not a good person. Until 20 minutes ago, I felt like I had a knife in my stomach. But now, no more.'

Despite his residences in Modena in Northern Italy and Pesaro on the Adriatic coast, Pavarotti had been claiming the tiny tax haven of Monte Carlo as his official residence, rather than Italy, but the Italian courts threw out his claim, instead electing to prosecute him on tax fraud charges, a charge which can carry a sentence of up to five years in prison.

This is not the first time Pavarotti has encountered an irate taxman. Only last year Pavarotti paid an undisclosed six-figure sum to settle a tax evasion probe opened against the all of the Three Tenors - Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras making up the dulcet trio.

Pavarotti, although a millionaire several times over, will pay his tax bill in instalments, with an initial payment of US$5 million with the rest to follow over a two year period. To show there are no hard feelings, he is to meet with the Italian finance minister Ottaviano Del Turco this week, the latter having hailed Pavarotti's tax payment as a sign that top Italians are gradually learning that they have to pay their taxes.

Despite the outcome of the case, Pavarotti has denied any wrongdoing throughout. He said in the newspaper La Stampa: 'This 25 billion that I'm going to pay is not a punishment, but because I am an honourable Italian citizen. I have always paid taxes, especially in the places where I have sung, but the state doesn't think I've paid enough. I suffered a lot in these four years. I'm still going to suffer, because I'm still going to have to pay - but finally I'm free.'

One assumes that Pavarotti was referring to the tax evasion case brought against him, rather than the tight pin-stripe suit and trainers he was sporting in court, when he said 'I want at last to have myself free of a big, big strain. It ruined my private life.'

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