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Vincenzo Nibali avoids prison sentence over unpaid tax, says Italian pressSmiling Shark Vincenzo Nibali © Simon MacMichael

Vincenzo Nibali avoids prison sentence over unpaid tax, says Italian press

Tour de France champion said to have failed to declare €772,000, mainly related to image rights
by Simon_MacMichael
Sun, Mar 22, 2015 20:08
10

Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali is reported to have avoided a potential six-month prison sentence after reaching an agreement with Italy’s tax authorities over undeclared income.

The Astana rider failed to declare income totalling €772,000 for 2010 and 2011, which would have incurred a tax liability of €290,000, reports Adnkronos, with around 80 per cent of that figure relating to image rights.

Because the amount of tax evaded was in excess of €50,000, the 30-year-old from Messina was reported for tax evasion, says Adnkronos.

Nibali is reported to have admitted his error and paid a fine of €45,000, enough to satisfy the judge handling the case to close the file without imposing a prison sentence, it adds.

The Sicilian is by no means the first high-profile Italian cyclist to have got into trouble with the tax authorities.

Paolo Bettini and Mario Cipollini have been investigated in the past after transferring their domicile to the tax haven of Monaco, with the Italian authorities claiming they continued to keep their main residence in Italy.

Vincenzo Nibali
tax
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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10 comments

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TheHound | 9 years ago
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But he absolutely doesn't dope.

Not exactly an honest sort of fellow from the looks of this.

I'm not actually saying he does dope, but this can't help his image too much.

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Simmo72 | 9 years ago
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Apply the berlusconi principle and all is well in Italy.

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rapid4 | 9 years ago
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What's the difference between paying a fine to close the case and bribing the court into not sending him to prison? A poorer man would do time whilst the elite just pay their way out of trouble.

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sorebones replied to rapid4 | 9 years ago
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rapid4 wrote:

What's the difference between paying a fine to close the case and bribing the court into not sending him to prison? A poorer man would do time whilst the elite just pay their way out of trouble.

A poorer man is unlikely to have evaded the €50,000+ of tax that would be required for it to be classed as a potential jail sentence case though, so it's not a reasonable comparison is it?

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pcristatus replied to sorebones | 9 years ago
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sorebones wrote:
rapid4 wrote:

What's the difference between paying a fine to close the case and bribing the court into not sending him to prison? A poorer man would do time whilst the elite just pay their way out of trouble.

A poorer man is unlikely to have evaded the €50,000+ of tax that would be required for it to be classed as a potential jail sentence case though, so it's not a reasonable comparison is it?

I think it is a fair comparison. In his book 'The Great Tax Robbery' Richard Brooks showed that, pound for pound of criminal activity, HMRC were 1,800 times more likely to prosecute benefit fraud than tax fraud. OK, this is the UK, not Italy, and income tax fraud comes in between those two in the scale of how harshly it is prosecuted. But the general principle of treating poorer people more harshly, holds. Higher up in the level of privilege there are eye-wateringly scandalous cases like that of Vodafone which, having saved themselves quite a few billion in corporation tax via shunting money around through shell companies, are actually let off paying most of this at all, charged no interest, and suffer no fine, let alone jail for the fat cats, because HMRC don't want to damage 'their relationship' with big companies. That's money that could have helped the NHS, paid for actual worthwhile cycling infrastructure and more besides, had HMRC bothered to do their job. Sorry, this has drifted further off-topic, but it did start with tax fraud, even if Nibali's...

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Pinaman | 9 years ago
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So he's still saved himself €245,000, not a bad result for him! Or does he have to pay the original €290,000 Too?

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rjfrussell | 9 years ago
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I have been in an English courtroom, when it was put to an Italian (being accused of insurance fraud) that he could not have paid the sum he said he had paid for the yacht (that had been destroyed by a suspicious fire) because his tax returns showed nothing like the necessary amount of income necessary to buy the yacht for the price he claimed.

His answer? On oath. In an English Court. "Do not be ridiculous- absolutely no-one in Italy declares his true income."

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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Doesn't he have an accountant?

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Lungsofa74yearold | 9 years ago
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Quite right - trivial mistake - anyone could forget to declare the odd 3/4 million Euros - the kind of money one finds down back of sofa etc etc. 39

Mind you, could be least of his probs as finding a new team might be high priority soon... 19

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jasecd | 9 years ago
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Perhaps if Astana lose their licence he could get a job at Starbucks.

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