[Archived] End Of Player Imports

[Alan75]

Could this weeks budget by the end of mercenary players wanting a move to the Premiership. With most if not all Premiership players falling into the £150,000-a-year bracket they will be subject to paying 50p in the pound tax.

When the time comes to renew contracts, how many foreign players will opt for the European leagues and how many top British players will be looking for a move across the channel.

What chances of Matt Derbyshire opting to stay in Greece. ?

Arsene Wenger spells it out

[Iceman]

Thats interesting, as i always said with the amount of money they get paid they should be paying tax. There will no doubt be some moaning, and all this will just disappear into thin air.

[Paul]

I'm less sure about this than some. Isn't it more likely the players will simply demand more and don't many of them already negotiate salaries net of tax? i.e the clubs actually pick up the tax bill. This is going to cost a player earning £1m an extra £100k? Life is so tough.

I guess if you combine it with the drop in the £ value against the Euro it's a much greater impact. I won't be shedding any tears for them.

[RovertheHill]

Unfortunately the way this will work is that people who can command very large salaries will either 1) demand more to cover the extra tax (and get it) or 2) employ the best accountants and avoid tax through one of the many loopholes that the super-rich seem to drive a coach and horses through

[thenodrog]

I'm less sure about this than some. Isn't it more likely the players will simply demand more and don't many of them already negotiate salaries net of tax? i.e the clubs actually pick up the tax bill. This is going to cost a player earning £1m an extra £100k? Life is so tough.

I guess if you combine it with the drop in the £ value against the Euro it's a much greater impact. I won't be shedding any tears for them.

Thing is the recession is widespread so apart from the very best that will get snapped up by CL clubs the journeymen that we get will likely have nowhere else to go. So Arsene is only really worrying for his own clubs situation isn't he? There is a million miles between the top 4 and the rest.

[American]

I'm less sure about this than some. Isn't it more likely the players will simply demand more and don't many of them already negotiate salaries net of tax? i.e the clubs actually pick up the tax bill. This is going to cost a player earning £1m an extra £100k? Life is so tough.

I guess if you combine it with the drop in the £ value against the Euro it's a much greater impact. I won't be shedding any tears for them.

Mostly agreed, although I've seen in the States where Florida teams are more attractive to free agents because of the lack of state income tax.

[Bobby G]

Wenger is always a doom and gloom merchant when it comes to these things.

[Guest Vinjay606]

Bit hypocritical of anyone on here to criticise anyone for avoiding tax. Probably a good thing Jack Walker did isn't it?

[RovertheHill]

Bit hypocritical of anyone on here to criticise anyone for avoiding tax. Probably a good thing Jack Walker did isn't it?

I suppose so. But living in a place that has limited or no taxes is not the same as living in a place that does and then engineering a way of avoiding them. Anyway, the point remains - I don't see the 50% tax scaring away any footballers from this country for the reasons I originally gave. The only way I see that happening is if they introduce a very tightly targeted footballers windfall tax

[jim mk2]

Congratulations to Alistair Darling on doing his bit for English football in yesterday's Budget.

Hopefully the galactico mercenaries currently playing for ManU, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City et al will resent paying 50 per cent tax and more on their earnings and leave for Italy and Spain creating a more equal competition for the rest of us.

Yours truly well ahead of the game as per usual. Wenger obviously read my post before speaking out.