Barcelona to launch Supreme Court appeal after being hit with €23m fine for tax irregularities

Barcelona will continue to fight the €23 million ($25m) tax liability imposed for alleged irregularities by Spain's Central Economic Administrative Court four years ago, despite an initial appeal failing. Crucially, there is no immediate obligation to pay up while the process is ongoing.

Barcelona said in a statement: "Futbol Club Barcelona shall be presenting an appeal to the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo).

"It comes as a surprise that the Contentious-Administrative house at the National Court has not considered the most recent jurisprudence of the Supreme Court on this matter, from which certain other football clubs have been able to benefit in recent sentences on the same matter.

"The divergent criteria of the National Court is also surprising when, a few months ago, another section accepted an appeal from our club on an identical issue to the current one that derived from the same inspection in relation to the Non-Resident Income Tax.This ruling does not entail any payment obligation for the club at present, this contingency being properly provisioned in the annual accounts."

This all relates to a tax inspection regarding payments made to players' agents between 2012 and 2015 when Sandro Rosell and later Josep Maria Bartomeu were running things. What the club was penalised for is alleged 'tax simulation'. The court ruling defines that as "the use of artifices directed towards tax avoidance, to enjoy fiscal benefits that do not correspond to the actual transition carried out in order to get 'more favourable' treatment than would otherwise have been the case."

It took four years from the original ruling in 2020 for the first appeal to be heard and judged, so it may not be a quick process as the case now goes higher to the Supreme Court. But Barcelona will be desperate to get it overturned in order to escape having to pay €23m at a time when club finances remain stretched.