The Constitutional Council censures advantageous tax measures tailored for FIFA | EUROtoday

Neither the Elysée nor the sports activities ministry, contacted by The world, have been fast to touch upon the choice of the Constitutional Council to censor, Thursday, December 28, the tax provisions of the 2024 finances meant to draw worldwide sports activities federations acknowledged by the International Olympic Committee to France.

Under the “principle of equality” earlier than public authorities, the clever males challenged these provisions, tailored for the highly effective and very rich International Football Federation (FIFA), which has had an annex on the Hôtel de la Marine, Place de la Concorde in Paris, since June 2021. These measures, which have been the topic of an unfavorable advisory opinion from the Council of State within the fall, offered for exemption from company tax and a number of other contributions (enterprise property contribution, contribution on the added worth of firms) these federations. The modification was additionally to exempt workers of federations domiciled in France from revenue tax for 5 years.

Although these provisions solely involved non-commercial actions, they have been the topic of three appeals by parliamentarians earlier than the Constitutional Council. “I am delighted with this decision which is consistent with the Constitution and predictable. I don’t understand how we could insert this unconstitutional amendment [déposé par les députés Renaissance, en octobre], jubilant senator (Les Républicains, Paris) Francis Szpiner. Even a decent public law student would have told the government, “Don’t do it.” »

“It was a disproportionate tax advantage and totally unfair vis-à-vis, in particular, amateur sport, which experiences the daily administrative and financial hasslebelieves the MP (Europe-Ecologie Les Verts, Hauts-de-Seine), Sabrina Sebaihi. There was no justification for rolling out the red carpet at FIFA. »

Pressure on the executive

A few months before the Paris Olympic Games, this “tax gift” provided to FIFA by the manager stemmed from Emmanuel Macron’s want to repatriate to Paris, the place the physique was based in 1904, a few of its actions. As early as December 2018, within the midst of the “yellow vest” disaster, he negotiated with FIFA President Gianni Infantino a partial transfer for the federation, which has been headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, since 1932.

By advantage of a tax ruling, negotiated on the finish of 2021 with Bercy, and the granting of posted employee standing, workers of the Paris workplace coming from Zurich didn’t pay their social safety contributions in France, and stored their social safety in Switzerland for 2 years. The annex, which isn’t topic to company tax since its inauguration by Mr. Macron in 2021, at present homes round twenty workers, notably chargeable for the Forward growth program and questions of governance and cooperation with African federations.

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