Sports Invest: VAT treatment of football agent’s fees

Key points

• The Sports Invest case was very fact-specific and reliance on it in any wider context is going to be quite difficult.
• This is a ‘who supplied what to whom’ case.
• Parties should ensure that the contractual arrangements reflect accurately the activities taking place and the value of the services being supplied.

In a recent decision Sports Invest UK Limited (TC8797) the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) decided that the VAT treatment of a football agent’s fees should follow the contractual pattern.

Sports Invest UK Limited (the agent) a company incorporated and resident in the UK worked on the transfer of a football player (Joao Mario) from Sporting Clube de Portugal (Sporting) in Portugal to Inter Milan (Inter) in Italy. Under these arrangements the agent received a payment of €4m from Inter. The tax dispute related to the VAT treatment of these fees.

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