El régimen fiscal de los clubes de futbol profesional en España y las ayudas de estadoel tipo impositivo efectivo como elemento determinante

Résumé

In 2016 the European Commission regarded the different tax regimen that some Spanish football clubs enjoyed as State aid and ordered its recovery. The reason for this different trax treatment is that the Spanish Act 10/1990 did not forced these football clubs become limited companies and allowed them to remain non-profit making bodies. However FC Barcelona lodged an appeal against this decision with the General Court of the European Union. As a result of this appeal, the Court has annulled the decision on the grounds of mere formal arguments. The main reason for the Court annulment of the Commission decision was that Commission failed to fulfilled its obligation to provide evidences of the existence of the fiscal advantage. It is still an arduous task to prove the existence of a fiscal advantage, for this reason we suggest to use the Effective Tax Rate (ETR) as the adecuate evidential tool for Commission who bears the burden of proof in such cases.