Taxation of International Sportsmen

This book analyses the tax treatment of income received from participation in international sports competition and the extent to which double tax treaty provisions based on article 17 of the OECD Model Tax Convention can be used to regulate the taxation of international sportsmen in the context of sports mega-events.

The current rules of international law relating to the taxation of income of sportsmen do not fulfil their functions in the context of international sports mega-events. Indeed, fiscal measures developed in the current practice of organizing major sports tournaments are inconsistent and often incompatible with the general principles of international law and domestic law of the host countries. In particular, comparative research shows that despite the right to tax foreign sportsmen, host countries of the Olympic Games and football championships are increasingly ready to exempt the champions from income tax under one-off tax regimes.

Taxation of International Sportsmen provides a detailed analysis of the tax breaks offered to non-resident players to supplement or even replace article 17 of the OECD Model and national law based on it. The book also provides an insight into why such alternative measures are adopted and whether article 17 could be changed to meet the requirements of today’s championships.