After winning his last gold medal in the London 2012 Olympic Games on Saturday night as part of Jamaica’s 100m relay team, Bolt told the BBC that UK tax laws were preventing him from coming to the UK more often.
According to Glyn Bunting, a partner at Deloitte who spoke on the BBC’s Today programme this morning, there was a recent example where Bolt was offered a £100,000 fee to appear at an athletics event but it was worked out that his UK tax liability would be greater than the fee and so he did not attend.
This is because HM Revenue & Customs has decided that sports stars are taxable on their sponsorship and endorsement as well as on their appearance fee.
It should be noted that the Olympics were excluded from this arrangement by law – a pre-condition of being awarded the Games in 2007.
The Champions League final has also received a similar exemption.
To hear the full interview on the BBC Today programme, click here
