Diego Costa has admitted he defrauded the Spanish state of over €1m by not declaring payments in excess of €5.15m (£4.6m, $5.8m).
The avoidance happened from 2014, when moved to the UK to play for Chelsea.
Additionally, he did not declare €1m in image rights.
The Atletico Madrid forward was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on 4 June 2020, and was given a fine of €543,208.
Costa, however, will not serve any jail time as he agreed to pay an additional €36,500 penalty.
Under Spanish law, an individual is spared imprisonment if the sentence for a non-violent first offence is less than two years, in exchange for a fine.
Trail of footballers’ fraud
“Diego Costa reached an agreement a few months ago with the prosecutor and has already paid the corresponding fine plus interest, and the request for a prison sentence was withdrawn,” an Atletico Madrid spokesman told news agency Reuters.
Costa in only one of many footballers who have gotten in the Spanish tax authority’s crosshairs:
- Barcelona defender Gerard Pique was ordered to pay €2.1m for image rights fraud in July 2019;
- Football manager Jose Mourinho was fined over €2.1m for tax fraud in February last year; and
- Cristiano Ronaldo pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges and accepted a penalty of €18.8m at the beginning of 2019.
