Questões de Concurso

Why Is Spain Really Taking Lionel Messi to Tax Court?
By Jonathan Mahler Sep 27, 2013

So Spain has decided to haul Lionel Messi into court for tax evasion, which strikes me as completely insane on pretty much every level. You may remember the story from a few months back: The greatest soccer player in the world and his father were accused of setting up  a bunch of shell companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on royalties and other licensing income.

Messi - who makes an estimated $41 million a year, about half from sponsors - reached a settlement with Spain’s tax authorities earlier this summer, agreeing to pay the amount he apparently owed, plus interest. The matter was settled, or so it seemed. Messi could go back to dazzling the world with his athleticism and creativity.
Only it turns out that Spain wasn’t quite done with Messi. His adopted country - Messi is Argentine but became a Spanish citizen in 2005 - is now considering pressing criminal charges against him.
Cracking down on tax-evading footballers has become something of a trend in Europe, where players and clubs have been known to launder money through “image-rights companies” often set up in tax havens. When you need money - and Europe needs money - go to the people who have it, or something like that. Over the summer, dozens of Italian soccer clubs were raided as part of an investigation into a tax-fraud conspiracy. A number of English Premier League clubs were forced last year to pay millions of pounds in back taxes. No one likes a tax cheat, and there’s little doubt that widespread tax fraud has helped eat away at the social safety net in Spain and elsewhere, depriving schools, hospitals and other institutions of badly needed funds. But Europe is not going to find the answers to its financial problems in the pockets of some professional soccer players and clubs. Messi’s defense, delivered by his father, seems credible enough to me. “He is a footballer and that’s it, ” Messi’s father Jorge said of his soccer-prodigy son. “If there was an error, it was by our financial adviser. He created the company. My mistake was to have trusted the adviser.” Even if Messi is legally responsible for the intricate tax dodge he is accused of having participated in, it’s pretty hard to believe that he knew much about it.
More to the point, Lionel Messi is probably Spain’s most valuable global asset. What could possibly motivate the Spanish government to want to tarnish his reputation, especially after he’s paid off his alleged debt? After four years of Great-Depression level unemployment, have anxiety and despair curdled into vindictiveness?
Here’s another explanation: Maybe this whole case has less to do with money than it does with history. Maybe it’s no coincidence that the target of the Spanish government’s weird wrath happens to play for FC Barcelona, which is, after all, "mes que un club." It's a symbol of Catalan nationalism - and a bitter, longtime rival of Spain’s establishment team, Real Madrid.
Too conspiratorial? Prove it, Spain. Release Cristiano Ronaldo’s tax return.

(Adapted form http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-27/why-is-spain-really-taking-lionel-messi-to-tax-court-.html)

How to determine your income tax bracket
by Elizabeth Rosen, Contributor
January 31, 2013

In order to properly file your federal income tax return and pay any tax that you owe, it is necessary to understand your income tax bracket, your filing status, and which income tax rate(s) apply to you. There are currently six marginal income tax brackets and five federal filing statuses. The amount of tax you owe will depend on your filing status and how much taxable income you earn.
Marginal Income Tax Brackets
Your marginal income tax bracket basically represents the highest tax rate that you MODAL pay on your income. There are currently six marginal income tax brackets for each federal filing status: 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, and 35 percent.
The marginal tax bracket system is a gradual tax schedule, which essentially means the more you earn, the more tax you pay. The amount of taxable income that you earn determines which tax bracket(s) you fall into. It is important to realize that only the money you earn within a certain tax bracket is taxed at that rate. In other words, if you earned more in 2012 than you did in 2011 and thus moved into a higher tax bracket, only the money that falls within that higher tax bracket is taxed at the higher rate.
So, for example, if you move from the 25 percent tax bracket to the 28 percent tax bracket, you may make the mistake of believing that all of your income is now taxed at that higher rate. However, only the money that you earn within the 28 percent bracket is taxed at that rate.
The structure of federal income tax brackets was first implemented by the IRS in the early 1900s in an attempt to create a progressive tax system that would demand less from lower-income individuals. This system, plus a series of tax credits and tax deductions, have allowed nearly half of Americans to avoid owing federal income tax altogether [Source: The Tax Foundation].
Federal Filing Statuses
Your filing status determines your filing requirements (whether or not you are required to file a tax return and which return to file), your standard deduction amount, your eligibility for certain tax credits and tax deductions, and your income tax. There are five federal filing statuses based on marital status and other conditions: single, married filing separately, married filing jointly, head of household, and qualifying widow(er) with dependent child.
When you fill out your federal income tax return, you must specify what your filing status is on the tax form. Review each filing status carefully and choose the one that best fits your situation. If you qualify for more than one filing status, you are allowed to choose the one
that offers you the ADJECTIVE tax.

(Adapted from http://www.irs.com/articles/how-determine-your-income-tax-bracket)