MADRID: Spanish tax authorities have approved a settlement with football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who will pay 19 million euros (US$22 million) to settle a tax fraud claim, prosecutors said on Friday.
The deal with tax authorities and the Portuguese player’s advisers also includes a two-year jail sentence that he won't serve. Sentences of up to two years are generally not enforced in Spain for first-time offenders in non-violent crimes.
The 33-year-old former Real Madrid striker, who moved to Juventus this month, appeared in court last July near Madrid to answer four counts of tax evasion.
Procecutors allege the five-time Ballon d'Or winner hid income generated in Spain from his image rights from tax authorities.
He is alleged to have used companies in low-tax foreign jurisdictions -- notably the British Virgin Islands and Ireland -- to avoid having to pay the tax otherwise due.
In 2014, Spanish authorities say he was late in declaring that year just 11.5 million euros of revenue earned in Spain for the period from 2011-14 when his earnings in his country of residence totalled 43 million euros.
The Spanish taxman also found he did not declare 28.4 million euros in image rights agreed for 2015-20, leaving 14.7 million owing.
His legal team had blamed the affair on a simple different interpretation of which revenue he was obliged to declare in Spain.
Had the case gone further, without the player offering a full settlement, he could have faced a fine of a reported 28 million euros as well as a three-and-a-half-year jail term, according to the Spanish tax office union Gestha.
The Argentinian football star Lionel Messi earlier paid a 2-million-euro fine in 2016 in his tax case and received a 21-month jail term.
The prison sentence was later reduced to a further fine of 252,000 euros.