Does Joe Portelli know?

Here’s some free tax advice.

If you get yourself registered with the MFA as a football player, whether on a full-time (pro) or a part-time (semi-pro) basis, the money you earn is taxed at an attractively low 7.5%. That’s not just for your salary, mind you.

Whatever allowances, bonuses, and special payments you get from your club for kicking the ball for them is taxed at that rock bottom rate, lower even than the tax rate charged on part-time jobs for those earning less than 10,000 euro working after their standard 40-hour job.

Maybe playing for the club you have spent millions in as its owner is not just about ego after all. An owner can pay into their club a few extra hundreds of thousands and then pay that money out to themselves as players, cleaning their money at a 7.5% tax rate instead of the standard 35%.

I have no idea if Joe Portelli’s accountant knows this.