Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has been revealed as the biggest tax payer in Spain over the last four years, with the Argentine paying a massive £324million to the taxman.
This figures were arrived at after his contract was leaked a few weeks ago.
Messi last signed a new contract in 2017 which runs until the end of the 2020/2021 season.
The contract is believed to be the biggest in sporting history and is worth up to 492 million pounds
Despite making a killing from his contract, the huge figures also mean Messi also has to cough a hefty amount of money in taxes.
As a matter of fact, financial experts estimate that the 33-year old is the single biggest contributor to Spain’s treasury, beating a number of big companies in the country in terms of tax remission.
From an annual pay of about £121m, it is estimated that about £58m of that money, nearly 50% of it, is taxed.
Aside from his weekly wage, however, Messi also pockets handsomely from renewal bonuses and gets an annual £69m ‘loyalty bonus’ for sticking with the Catalan giants for so long.
To put things to perspective, Lionel Messi’s tax is estimated to be equal to the tax of 120,000 Spaniards combined.
Prior to the estimations of his taxation over the last four years, Messi as in 2016 found guilty of tax fraud and handed a 21-month suspended prison sentence.
