Football: New Zealand-based trust involved in Jose Mourinho tax scandal

Jose Mourinho. Photo / Getty

A foreign trust based in New Zealand was used by former Real Madrid and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho to avoid paying millions in tax.

According to a Spanish newspaper report, the New Zealand-based Kaitaia Trust was utilised to channel income rights income earned by Mourinho while he was working in the Iberian country.

Mourinho was convicted earlier this week of tax fraud amounting to 3.3 million euros ($NZ5.5 million).

The 56-year-old received a one-year suspended sentence after a guilty plea in Madrid.

Like some other high profile football identities, including Cristiano Ronaldo most recently, Mourinho won't actually serve any jail time as Spanish law allows first time offenders to have their sentences suspended (if they are of two years or less).

However, he will be liable for a fine of almost 2 million euros (NZ$3.3 million).

The charges arose from undeclared image rights income in 2011 and 2012 while Mourinho was at the helm of Madrid, arguably the most successful club in the history of world football.

According to El Mundo newspaper, the Madrid court was told that Mourinho owned "one hundred per cent" of Koper Services SA, "through the Kaitaia Trust, based in New Zealand."

Mourinho's usage of a New Zealand-based trust was first unearthed in December 2016, following an investigation by Football Leaks.

That research found that Mourinho had used tax havens to conceal his image rights income, including Ireland, Switzerland and New Zealand.

The main beneficiaries of the trust were alleged to be Mourinho's wife Matilde Faria and their two children.

Mourinho's plea deal comes two weeks after Ronaldo pleaded guilty to tax fraud from the time he played in Spain. The Portugal forward received a two-year suspended sentence and was ordered to pay nearly $19 million euros to Spanish authorities.

Mourinho had appeared before a judge in 2017 and denied any wrongdoing, saying he had paid everything he owed to Spanish tax authorities from the time he coached Real Madrid.

He said he left the country in 2013 with the "information and the conviction" that he was up to date with his tax obligations.

Gestifute, the agency that represents Ronaldo and Mourinho, released a statement at the time saying the coach paid "more than 26 million euros (then $30.3 million) in taxes, with an average tax rate over 41 percent."