MADRID: Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa has agreed to pay 1.7 million euros ($1.9 million) to Spain’s tax agency which was investigating him for non-payment of taxes on image rights, a Spanish newspaper reported Tuesday.
The agency said the 30-year-old hid income earned in 2014 from a sponsorship deal signed with Adidas shortly before he joined Chelsea from Atletico that year. Costa, who has both Brazilian and Spanish citizenship, returned to Atletico in 2018.
Under a deal with Spain’s tax office, Costa will plead guilty to tax evasion and pay 1.1 million euros in back taxes, daily newspaper El Mundo, reported. He will also be sentenced to six months in jail but will not serve time and instead pay a fine of 600,000 euros, the paper said. The agreement will be made official at a Madrid court on October 4, El Mundo reported.
Contacted by AFP, a spokesman for the tax office, said he could not comment on individual tax files. Costa is the latest famous footballers to have fallen foul of Spain’s tax authorities.
