Italian Cyclist Paolo Bettini Charged With Tax Evasion
Cycling isn’t a huge pro sport in the states, but it is overseas. The money is big as show by Italian cyclist Paolo Bettini being charged with tax evasion by Italian authorities.
The world of professional cycling is as cutthroat as any professional sport. The teams are organized around a principal sponsorship group and have one lead cyclist. The rest of the riders are organized to provide support to get that cyclist to the front in major competitions like the Tour de France and Giro in Italy. This puts tremendous pressure on the lead cyclist, but they also get paid well.
Paolo Bettini is a retired cyclist from Italy. He was supposed to be the next big thing, but had a middling career. On the positive side, he won the Olympic Gold Medal for cycling and two world championships. On the downside, he never won a major tour and never really came close. Still, he was paid very handsomely as we now know from a tax investigation against him.
As many professionals do in Europe, Bettini “moved” to Monte Carlo to cut his tax bill. He is now being charged with tax evasion by Italians with a figure of 11 million Euros in unclaimed income being thrown around. The charges do not stem from his move to Monte Carlo, but from the fact that it was apparently a faked move by the cyclist. Italian authorities are charging that Bettini did some paper transactions to make it look like he lives in the principality, but he actually never stopped living and working in Italy. This, in turn, would make all of his income subject to Italian tax. Thus we have the tax evasion charges.
For his part, Bettini seems to think it is much ado about nothing. He has confirmed that an investigation has been going on for roughly a year, but notes that there really isn’t much else to say. What will the outcome be? He’ll probably end up paying back taxes to some extent and that’ll be it. Still, the investigation will be an eye opener for many European sports professionals who change their domicile to Monte Carlo. Apparently, they’ll actually have to live there. How agonizing!