By Alex Miller,Jeremy Armstrong
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Premier League clubs and their stars have paid almost £900m in a football industry tax avoidance probe, new figures reveal. Leading players, clubs and agents have been told to hand over £888m since HMRC began their investigation back in 2015. The huge tally of unpaid taxes includes £90m recouped by the taxman last season. Clubs paid out £73m in demands, players paid a total of £15m, with agents settlements worth £2m, according to a Freedom of Information request. In reply, HMRC said: “We record additional tax identified from our enquiries as yield. Compliance yield has a number of components. It includes a calculation of the additional revenue due, the prevention of revenue loss from incorrect or fraudulent repayment claims, and an estimation of the effect our interventions have on customers’ future behaviour.” They have not recruited external investigators so far. But they do consider the impact which ‘their interventions have on customers’ future behaviour’. The latest HMRC figures reveal 397 investigations are currently ongoing. They include tax checks carried out at 32 clubs across the Premier League and Football League. The FoI request also revealed that 277 players are under investigation, as well as 88 agents. A total of 33 clubs were at the centre of the HMRC probe into a tax scheme that wrongly claimed £17m in public money. That wide ranging inquiry into the national game began in 2015, with raids on addresses linked to Newcastle Utd. The club settled a £10m tax dispute that dated back to Mike Ashley’s ownership last year. Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Fulham are among the clubs still under investigation. Brentford were also said to have made a claim worth more than £3m. Chelsea were paid £3m in research and development (R&D) tax relief and payments by HMRC between 2020 and last year. Forest claimed £607,000 in the 2021-22 financial year. Fulham received £758,000 in credits between 2019 and 2024. Manchester United claimed £1.8m in 2022, Liverpool secured over £1.3m and Chelsea received £2m between 2020 and 2023. Chelsea were also accused by the FA of breaking rules regarding payment of agents and third-party ownership of players in transfers. During Roman Abramovich’s ownership of Chelsea, tens of millions of pounds of football-related transactions were secretly paid via offshore companies that he ultimately owned. These funds did not appear in Chelsea’s official accounts submitted to Uefa, the Premier League or the FA. Man Utd are also under HMRC investigation, while Sir Alex Ferguson faces scrutiny over his ACF Sports Promotion firm. West Ham expect to be hit with a tax bill worth millions but have rejected claims from HMRC so far; talks are ongoing. Arsenal star Oleksandr Zinchenko lost a court battle with HMRC earlier this year over unpaid tax worth £300,000. Ex-Man City defender Benjamin Mendy was forced to sell his £5million Cheshire mansion to repay an £800,000 tax debt. Former England stars Trevor Sinclair and John Barnes are among the stars involved in recent HMRC cases.
