Serie A teams might be forced to pay hefty sums in the near future because a recent correction by the Agenzia dell’Entrate (the Italian tax office) excluded them from a privileged regime that yielded them significant discounts on the salary taxes in the last couple of years, but the situation can still be rectified, the site Calcio e Finanza reported today.
In 2019, a decree called Crescita issued by the government included athletes among the beneficiaries of a 20% decrease on the taxes on the wages intended for people that moved their business to Italy from abroad, provided they committed to stay for at least two years. This allowed them to save serious money on the rich salaries of, for instance, Matthijs De Ligt, Romelu Lukaku, Christian Eriksen, Arthur and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
However, yesterday the Agency clarified in a statement that the decree can not be applied to sports teams because it is missing an executive order, which has not been approved yet. At this stage, it is unclear when and if it will happen given the different climate in the Peninsula.
The site adds that, while the outfits have been paying reduced taxes right away since the introduction of the decree, they have put aside some money in their balance sheets as they were aware it was not fully operative. Despite that, an eventual full reimbursement would still represent a very negative outcome and would further hinder their ability to spend in the next transfer market windows.