• Neymar’s wage packet could go straight to the taxman if he re-joins Barcelona
• The Brazilian has been hit with a £30million unpaid tax bill in Spain
Image: FILE
If Barcelona re-sign Neymar his first wage packet could end up going straight to the taxman and not to the player, El Mundo has revealed.
Neymar has been hit with a 34m euros (£30m) unpaid tax bill and if he goes back to Spain, his earnings could be embargoed until the debt is settled.
The outstanding sum is almost equivalent to what the player currently takes home in a year at Paris Saint-Germain.
The Brazilian is also currently embroiled in a legal dispute with Barcelona over what he claims is an unpaid signing bonus from his previous stint at the club. If courts rule in his favour, that money could also go straight to pay his tax bill.
When the Brazilian signed a new five-year contract at Barcelona in 2016 it included a renewal bonus payable in two instalments. In the summer of 2017, PSG signed him paying his 222m euros buy-out clause just weeks before the start of the new season. Neymar believed he was still entitled to the second half of his renewal bonus from the 2016 contract, but claims Barcelona never paid it.
The legal wrangling over the bonus has rumbled on since his departure. If Barcelona are forced by the courts to pay Neymar the money this will also go straight into the public purse and not Neymar’s pocket.
Meanwhile, Barcelona have reportedly offered Paris Saint-Germain £90m plus two players for Brazilian forward Neymar. The Spanish club have given the French giants a list of six players that they can choose from as part of the deal.
Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele, Ivan Rakitic, Nelson Semedo and Malcom are included in the list while the identity of the sixth player remains unknown, according to reports.
Neymar has expressed a desire to leave PSG with the Spanish outlet Sport claiming a player and cash swap deal is considered ‘the most viable option’ for all parties earlier this week. PSG have now accepted the 27-year-old’s decision to depart and are determined to recoup some of the £198m world-record fee paid to sign him in 2017.
However, Barca are reluctant to pay the full amount and have stipulated that any payment for the player must be postponed until July 2020.
After the £108m signing of Antoine Griezmann, the Catalan outfit have offered the smaller fee and the choice of two players in order to comply with financial fair play regulations. Neymar returned to pre-season training in Paris on Monday after undermining his employers by playing in a five-a-side tournament in his home town of Praia Grande. The former Santos star appears to be biding his time until the two clubs and his representatives can reach an agreement on his return to Spain.