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So, footballers go on strike to avoid 75% tax


Pickles
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Footballers want to be treated as a special case and exempted from the 75% tax on salaries of over €1Million, and to prove how deserving they are, they are going on strike for 1 weekend:

http://www.midilibre.fr/2013/10/25/greve-du-foot-contre-la-taxe-a-75-la-nicollin-et-gazeau-montent-au-creneau,774590.php

Those poor footballers, who get paid in a year more than most get in a lifetime ...

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[quote user="NickP"]Most footballers are not salaried employees, they are set up as global companies and spend fortunes on accountants who make sure they are not treated like us mere mortals, so I don't think they will be paying 75% tax.[/quote]

I agree, but in that case why are they going on strike?

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 Pickles, using my very limited French to read your link, I think you will find that the clubs themselves are behind the strike as they are worried that if the 75% tax comes in they will not be able to attract the top players to the French league. So a "strike" would suit the owners very well politically, not an unusual situation in this day and age. As I said; if I've got that wrong forgive me that's down to my translating abilities.

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[quote user="NickP"] Pickles, using my very limited French to read your link, I think you will find that the clubs themselves are behind the strike as they are worried that if the 75% tax comes in they will not be able to attract the top players to the French league. So a "strike" would suit the owners very well politically, not an unusual situation in this day and age. As I said; if I've got that wrong forgive me that's down to my translating abilities. [/quote]

Indeed, the clubs seem to be behind this - but they claim it's going to cost French clubs in total €44Million - which I suspect is a drop in the ocean compared to their expenditure.  I also don't understand how this is supposed to cost the CLUBS, because the tax is on the receiver as far as I can see. And it's only for 2013/14 ... The clubs are very good at crying "poverty" but then pay huge transfer fees and wages.

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[quote user="Mr Ceour de Lion II"]I thought this stupid tax had been done away with?

[/quote]

That was so last year...

Flamby tried to put it through last year, and it was thrown out by the constitutional court. He said he would bring it in, failed to do so immediately, and has now done retrospectively for 2013.

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The tax on employees was deemed non constitutional. However, they government have now decided they want the employers to pay it.

I've been following this a bit over the last few days. This link, and especially the comments made on it, make for very interesting reading.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/french-football-clubs-strike-tax-rate

I'm of the opinion that Hollande is shooting himself in the foot (or both feet in this instance). It's best to receive X% of Y in tax from the multi-billionaires, than to receive X% of 0 when they leave for a different foreign club. To be honest, there are not many players that this will effect, but they are the players that could ply their trade in a different tax culture.

I do believe that most professional football players are akin to mercenaries, but that is the game they play. This will only apply to PSG (and maybe in some small part OM, as Monaco are outside the French tax regime...although it you are a French player playing for Monaco do you get taxed as French or Monaco??). But as PSG are bank rolled from the Arabs then will it make any difference? It will mean the Arabs have to pay a dividend in investing in French football.

 

 

 

 

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If the French clubs are to stand a chance of competing at the top, then this tax will have to go, otherwise they'll end up being as powerful as Celtic in Europe which would be a shame.

Having said that, the Germans probably have the best league in the world right now, and have a team which is currently European champions without the obscene amounts of money the like of Man City, Chelski and PSG have squandered.

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[quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"]The tax on employees was deemed non constitutional. However, they government have now decided they want the employers to pay it.

I've been following this a bit over the last few days. This link, and especially the comments made on it, make for very interesting reading.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/french-football-clubs-strike-tax-rate[/quote]

Ah ... so it IS the employers who will pay! Thanks very much!

Meanwhile, in the UK in the run up to the latest international games, there were complaints that because so many non-English players play in the Premier League, it reduces the chances for English players to get experience at the top level and reduces the flow of "home-grown" talent. Perhaps there can be too much money in football?

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[quote user="Pickles"]
Indeed, the clubs seem to be behind this - but they claim it's going to cost French clubs in total €44Million - which I suspect is a drop in the ocean compared to their expenditure.  I also don't understand how this is supposed to cost the CLUBS, because the tax is on the receiver as far as I can see. And it's only for 2013/14 ... The clubs are very good at crying "poverty" but then pay huge transfer fees and wages.
[/quote]

Insomnia brings its problems, but one benefit (!) is that I sometimes watch the international business news review at 5.30am on BBC1.

This item was discussed briefly in yesterday's programme. David Buik, a financial commentator who frequently appears on the show, said something to the effect that football players were paid net. The entire burden of the tax would fall on the club not the player.

Irrespective of the fairness of the tax, if this is really how top-level football clubs organise their affairs, then the sooner they all went bankrupt the better. Then football could re-establish itself on a rational business basis.

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[quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"]

To be honest, there are not many players that this will effect, but they are the players that could ply their trade in a different tax culture.[/quote]

Ah but, a retrospective tax - they have already earned it so no good running away
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[quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"]

To be honest, there are not many players that this will effect, but they are the players that could ply their trade in a different tax culture.[/quote]

Ah but, a retrospective tax - they have already earned it so no good running away
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[quote user="Pickles"][quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"]The tax on employees was deemed non constitutional. However, they government have now decided they want the employers to pay it.

I've been following this a bit over the last few days. This link, and especially the comments made on it, make for very interesting reading.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/french-football-clubs-strike-tax-rate[/quote]

Ah ... so it IS the employers who will pay! Thanks very much!

Meanwhile, in the UK in the run up to the latest international games, there were complaints that because so many non-English players play in the Premier League, it reduces the chances for English players to get experience at the top level and reduces the flow of "home-grown" talent. Perhaps there can be too much money in football?

[/quote]

If English players are good enough, then they would play and get picked for their clubs. England has rarely put out world class players in the past, can only think of two top, top players Rooney and Gazza that had it all in recent years. I think it's mostly the way that young players are being coached in the UK rather than the quantity coming through.

In my lifetime, I can only think of two England teams that have done anything of note, getting to the WC semis in 1990, then the semis of the European Championships in 96. As for the "golden generation" that are just coming up to retirement, they were failures too internationally.

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Mr CdL if you think the only two world class players England have produced in the last few years are Rooney and Gazza, I suggest you stick to soccer and the MLS. Or better still stop passing comment on English players, you've just shown yourself up big time.
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Ok, maybe Gerrard too. Internationally, England have done absolutely nothing for years. Perhaps if their egos hadn't got in the way, they may have achieved better than a couple of semi finals. The main reason English clubs have done well in club football is mainly because of foreign imports.

The current crop I have some hope for though. They seem to be playing more as a team than the previous generation. But if the media keep hyping them up like the "golden generation" before, then they are doomed to the same failure too. I think the media is much to blame in overhyping good players.

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Gerrard? stop it your getting worse. Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Martin Peters, Gordon Banks, PeterShilton, Gary Lineker Alan Shearer, David Beckham, world class every man.  The media hype doesn't make good players bad, I'm afraid your falling into armchair critic stereotyping mode.
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I did say in my lifetime. The first 4 weren't in my lifetime, and I'd agree with you that they were.

Shilton was a great keeper, but again before my time as a football fan.

Lineker, I give you, he was a world class finisher (not a very skillful player though).

Shearer was a fantastic finisher too, I grant you that and it was a shame he never played for a top club to really show his true worth.

Becks was a very good player, but never world class for me. Had a great right peg. I actually rate Scholes higher than him. If England had built the team around him, then it may have had better success. Unfortunately, he was mainly played out of position on the left.

But even so, you've listed only 8 English players in the past 50 years that you would consider world class. Spain has more than that now.

As for Gerrard, I think you have to consider him up there, he pretty much won the CL for Liverpool 9 years ago. As much as I can't stand the man, he had it when it mattered. He's not the player he once was now though.

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  • 3 weeks later...
And now the clubs have backed down ...

The "strike" would be VERY unpopular, the general public would NOT be very sympathetic to them ... and of course they would lose the income!

http://www.midilibre.fr/2013/11/14/football-taxe-a-75-les-clubs-renoncent-a-la-greve,783141.php
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