FC Barcelona Deny Receiving $17 Million Tax Agency Fine

FC Barcelona have denied that they have been hit with a €15.7 million ($17.1 million) fine by the Spanish Tax Agency, known as the Hacienda, and have requested a correction from El Confidencial which ran a report claiming as such.

The Spanish digital newspaper reported that the Hacienda launched an investigation in 2019 which resulted in the authority deciding to fine Barca the quoted amount for alleged “irregularities” in payments related to some of their former players.

According to information obtained by El Confidencial, these alleged irregularities related to transferring Audi cars to members of staff, failing to declare the payment of charter flights, and accounting indemnities for former players Arda Turan and Alex Song incorrectly.

The amount pertaining to Turan is reported as €1.312 million euros ($1434 million), while Song’s is almost treble that at €3.5 million ($3.8 million).

On Thursday afternoon, however, Barca sent out an official statement by email to members of the press and denied “the content of the information published today” of which it will request a rectification.

Barca clarified that they were inspected for their activity in the 2015/2016 and 2017/2018 seasons, with the investigation closed in July 2021, but also claimed that they weren’t sanctioned by the treasury for any “of the alleged irregularities that El Confidencial talks about in its article”.

“The sanctions referred to in the article, which were appealed before the Central Administrative Economic Court, refer to another matter, such as the tax treatment of payments made to players’ agents,” the club wrote.

“In this regard, Barca would like to emphasize that in April 2023, the Central Administrative Economic Court estimated the appeals presented by the Club’s lawyers, annulling the sanctions relating to Personal Income Tax and the Tax on the Income of Non-Residents.

“It is to be expected that the sanction related to Value Added Tax will also be annulled shortly, [which] also [refers] to the tax treatment of payments made to players’ agents,” it added, before concluding that the club will “request the rectification of the information”.

At the time of publishing this article, El Confidencial hadn’t yet responded to FC Barcelona’s statement.