Cristiano Ronaldo has ‘never hidden anything’ and insisted no special tax scheme was set up when he arrived at Real Madrid in 2009.
The Portuguese star appeared in a Madrid court on Monday accused of evading €14.7m in taxes but insisted he was totally innocent.
“The Spanish tax service [Hacienda] knows the detail of all my income because we have given it to them,” read a statement from Ronaldo.
“I have never hidden anything, nor did have I ever had the intention of evading taxes.
“I always do my tax declaration in a voluntary manner, as I think that we must all declare and pay taxes according to our income. Those who know me know that this is what I ask from my advisors and that they keep everything up to date, and correctly paid, as I do not want any problems.
"When I signed for Real Madrid, I did not create a special structure to manage my image rights, I just kept them the way they were managed when I was in England.
“The lawyers who were recommended to me by Manchester United created it in 2004, long before I thought of coming to live in Spain.
“The structure was normal in England, accepted by the English tax authority who ratified it as legal."
