Ancelotti admits tax fraud but claims he was poorly advised
Carlo Ancelotti admitted to a judge that he was responsible for an alleged tax fraud in 2014, although he claimed he was poorly advised by those around him at the time and distanced himself from the accusation.
The Real Madrid coach appeared in court in Madrid on Friday morning, as he was questioned over accusations made against him by the prosecutor’s office relating to two possible crimes against the public treasury in 2014 and 2015.
Ancelotti supposedly didn’t pay 1,062,079 euros to the tax office over that period.
The 62-year-old admitted not paying the correct amount of taxes during his first stint at Real Madrid, but defended himself by saying he was given poor advice from his advisors at the time, according to El Mundo. He’s subsequently agreed to pay the amount owed to the tax office.
Ancelotti has not done the same, however, with the case brought against him from 2015, claiming that he had not been in Spain long enough that year (183 days) to have to pay taxes.
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The prosecutor’s main argument is that in the fiscal years of 2014 and 2015, Ancelotti ‘did not obtain income from his professional activity as a coach from any other sports club’ until he joined Bayern Munich in 2016, meaning his main source of income was from Real Madrid.
In those two seasons, he signed two contracts with Los Blancos, one as an employee and another concerning the transfer of his image rights.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Ancelotti didn’t declare the income he made from his imaging rights or income he received from other brands in an attempt to avoid tax payments.