International transfers of professional football players

An international transfer of a football player from one professional club to another may cause various financial streams with specific tax ramifications with sometimes doubtful solutions. The purpose of this comparative survey will be to analyse the most common tax ramifications and how these are dealt with in the national systems of several countries. The survey shall cover the tax treatment of the income paid to the player and other payments, such as agent’s fees or commission fees from the point of view of the player and agent. There may also be consequences for other parties involved, e.g. parties owning part of transfer rights etc. In a later issue of GSLTR we will also look at the position of the clubs and the VAT consequences.