The president of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, Eric Coquerel (LFI), asked the government on Tuesday to communicate to him “as soon as possible” tax documents on the record transfer of Brazilian footballer Neymar from FC Barcelona to PSG in 2017.
In a letter addressed to the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, dated January 16 and consulted by AFP, he questions the tax treatment of the most expensive transfer in history, via the payment of a clause release of 222 million euros.
The press recently reported the fact that PSG would have received two rulings sent by the tax administration and Urssaf of Ile-de-France, indicating to this club the absence of liability for income tax and social contributions of this sum, writes MP Insoumis.
Still citing press information, Eric Coquerel notes that the Urssaf would have recently decided, in quite similar cases, in the direction of subjugation in the context of controls in the rugby sector.
To see things more clearly, the deputy asks Bercy for the communication of these rulings (both in the case of Neymar Jr. and in other similar cases) as well as all other documents relating to the fiscal and social treatment of release clauses in all the sports.
Eric Coquerel bases his request on an article of the organic law on finance laws: it provides that financial and administrative documents requested by the heads of parliamentary finance committees must be provided to them, with exceptions.
An investigation recently began into a possible tax advantage obtained by PSG for the transfer of the Brazilian superstar. It is part of an investigation carried out since September 2022 around influence operations attributed to the club’s former communications director Jean-Martial Ribes.
Justice is questioning in particular a possible intervention with the government of the former Macronist vice-president of the National Assembly, Hugues Renson, in favor of tax advantages for PSG during the recruitment of Neymar, since transferred to a club Saudi.