Authorities nail Rossi for tax evasion

When The Doctor paid a hundred euros in amnesty to cure his tax troubles in 2002, he thought that was an end to the matter. Little did he know that his letter to Telecom, one of his sponsors, would turn out to be the taxman’s trump card. It was the request for broadband coverage for Tavullia that, according to the tax authorities, puts Valentino Rossi squarely in the frame because Tavullia is the town in the Marche region where the Rossi family lives.

Tax inspectors began investigating, their suspicions aroused by the curious desire of the champion motorcyclist. They found out that Rossi’s yacht Tatilla is berthed at Vallugola marina, only ten kilometres from the house, and that insurance was taken out at Pesaro for eight motor vehicles owned by, or registered to, Rossi’s relatives or companies linked to him. The vehicles involved are a BMW M5, a BMW M3, two Porsches, Mini Cooper, a Mitsubishi, a Mercedes Sprinter and a Fiat Magnum. Together, it all adds up to proof that Rossi has maintained his tax domicile in Italy, despite being resident in London’s exclusive St James’s Square, because investigators have shown the existence of the connections with Italy that are required by law before the authorities can assert tax liability.

The figures in the inspectors’ reconstruction give an idea of the scale of Rossi’s tax evasion. From 2000 to 2004, the world champion declared only “trivial amounts of income from property" and lied about everything else. The report says “in 2000, he submitted a fraudulent return for all taxes. From 2001 to 2004, he submitted a fraudulent return for IRPEF [income tax – Trans.] and failed to submit returns for VAT or IRAP [regional tax on business activities – Trans.]". According to documents received from the UK authorities, Rossi paid only nominal amounts of tax in Britain: just 629 pounds (a little over 1,000 euros) in 2001 on a declared income of 825 pounds; 1,361 pounds in 2002 on earnings of 1,022 pounds and a meager 650 pounds in 2003, despite revenue of astronomical proportions. More at Corriere