For years, the former Honda rider and now KTM test rider has been haunted by the long shadow of the Spanish tax agency, which has been investigating alleged irregularities in Dani Pedrosa’s tax residency since the mid-2000s.
After winning three world championships, one in the 125 and two in the quarter-litre, Pedrosa moved to MotoGP in 2006 with Alberto Puig as manager, establishing his residence in the United Kingdom, a tax domicile which he then changed to Switzerland, where he resides still.
Since the mid-2000s, tax authorities have tried to prove that the driver lived in Spain, resulting in a long and complicated dispute that led to Pedrosa appearing on the Spanish Revenue Agency’s list of major tax defaulters in 2015 and in 2016, as well as suffering, together with his family, “harassment from the customs surveillance service”, according to his lawyer.
In a statement released on Tuesday by the lawyer David Gil Fernández, of the AYG Asesores firm, together with the pilot himself, we read that:
“Last Thursday, November 16, the fourth section of the Administrative Litigation Court of the Audiencia Nacional (National High Court) notified a ruling that upholds the appeal of the administrative litigation presented by Dani Pedrosa Ramal against a liquidation of the income tax for the years 2005 and 2006, when he lived in London”, explains the lawyer.
“Although the sentence can still be appealed in cassation before the Supreme Court, the Revenue Agency will have to reimburse the interested party 2,418,373.20 euros plus the related interest, in addition to paying the costs of the legal proceedings, to which it was sentenced “, the note continues.
“This sentence is the end of a long journey in which the Revenue Agency has seen how every attempt to establish Pedrosa’s residence in Spain has been rejected”, continues David Gil, the lawyer who handled the case with extraordinary success from the beginning.
The same note specifies all the proceedings initiated by the Revenue Agency against Pedrosa which have been challenged and rejected:
“1. Liquidation of the 2008 and 2009 IRPF plus the related sanction, annulled by the Central Economic-Administrative Court on 14 February 2019.
2. Settlement for personal income tax from 2011 to 2014 plus the related penalty, canceled by the Central Economic-Administrative Court on 22 February 2021.
3. Settlement for the 2013 and 2014 wealth tax, plus related penalties, canceled by the Central Economic-Administrative Court on 22 February 2021″.
All these proceedings, against which there is no longer any possibility of appeal, ended with the Revenue Agency being sentenced to return the amounts paid by the pilot (more than 22,000,000 euros), in addition to the payment of the related interest of default”, they say from AYG Asesores.
Motorsport.com has had access to the exact amounts that Pedrosa has had to repay to the Spanish tax office from 2019 to today, and when added together they are close to €30 million, an absolutely staggering sum.
“Naturally Dani Pedrosa is very satisfied with the conclusion of this proceeding, in which it was proven that he never lied about his tax residence, as the tax office claimed. However, Pedrosa also bitterly recalls very unpleasant episodes when his name was unfairly published in the list of tax defaulters in 2015 and 2016, so he had to endure some unwanted situations, or when agents of the Customs Surveillance Service harassed his family environment, being forced to submit a formal complaint to the board of defense of taxpayers of the Revenue Agency”, concludes the note from the pilot’s lawyers.
#MotoGP #Pedrosa #wins #taxman #pay #million