Filenews 13 December 2024 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
Following yesterday's increase in the tax on betting by the Plenary of the Parliament, the grace period for football companies/clubs ends, which have (on the basis of the letter received from the Commissioner of Taxation) 18 days to pay off the additional tax debts they created amounting to €4.1 million. after May 2023, when the last plan to repay the unions' debts came into effect.
It was no coincidence that DISY MP Haris Georgiadis spoke at yesterday's plenary session of the Parliament, saying that the groups are counting days, meaning that they are running out of time to start repaying and avoid the consequences if they continue with their current tactics.
This was also evident from the announcement of the Ministry of Finance, which had argued that the Debt Repayment Plan of A' Class Associations/Companies 2023 remains in force, noting that "the obligations of the associations/companies remain unchanged, to which they are expected to respond, so that there are no further undesirable consequences and no debts to the state are written off".
The unions/companies will now either pay the additional debts of €4.1 million. that they created, or they will ask the Tax Department to make an additional settlement. Their past debts amount to €31.5 million. (total debts €35.6 million). However, according to "F" information, the Commissioner of Taxation Sotiris Markidis will not spare them and for those unions that do not comply he will apply the law. That is, he will address the Attorney General asking for their criminal prosecution and at the same time they will be removed from the Repayment Plan, which will also put them in trouble in relation to UEFA's criteria.
Although it was not implemented in the past, a prerequisite for the participation of football clubs in the government plan is the payment of the instalments agreed with the Ministry of Finance.
In yesterday's plenary, MEPs sang to football clubs about their inconsistency and their non-compliance with the commitments they made to the state. The bill, which provides for an increase in taxation on betting from 3% on net earnings to 4.5%, in order to increase the sponsorship granted to the CFA and its members and cover their tax debts, was approved yesterday marginally.
The 27 MPs from DISY, DIKO, ELAM and independent MP Andreas Themistokleous voted in favour and the 25 MPs from AKEL, EDEK, DPA, Ecologists, independent Alexandra Attalidou and individual socialist MP Kostis Efstathiou voted against.
At the same time, an amendment co-signed by AKEL, DISY DIKO and DIPA was approved for the increase to 5% of taxation so that the 0.5% rate would be allocated to the other sports federations, thus raising the total rate to them to 1%.
It is worth noting that some big players of football clubs lobbied until the last to convince the parties. MPs' phones were set on fire by football officials, urging them to give their vote in favour.
