Usain Bolts From UK Tax System
Jamaican speedster Usain Bolt celebrates after winning the men's 100 metre race during the Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting 2010 at Daegu Stadium
Usain Bolt has withdrawn from next month’s Diamond League meeting in London for tax reasons.
Britain’s sports minister Hugh Robertson said he could intervene after Olympic and world 100m and 200m champion Bolt revealed he wouldn’t run at next month’s event because of Britain’s prohibitive tax rules. Robertson has alluded he could work something out with UK Athletics and promoters Fast Track.
“I’ve not had a direct approach from either the sport’s governing body or the promoters of the Crystal Palace meeting so I don’t know exactly what we are dealing with here,” Robertson said in an interview on BBC radio on Tuesday. “It is a problem we have come across and addressed with other sports and clearly if they write to me I will take it up with the treasury. It’s a problem across other sports.
“Golfers and tennis players have come to me, and I’m pretty sure that at the back end of the 2012 Olympic bill is a commitment not to tax overseas stars who come over to compete in the Olympics,” said Robertson. “If there is a particular problem (with Bolt) I’m happy to look at it and see if I can help.”
The British tax system means that Bolt would be taxed on his earnings at the lucrative event and also on a proportion of his huge personal endorsements throughout the year, even though he does not reside in Britain. It is a system that has already undermined Britain’s attempts to host some major sports events, including this year’s Champions League final, which was staged in Madrid rather than Wembley.
Robertson, however, said that it might be too late to prevent the world’s fastest man taking on Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay in a mouthwatering 100m in London. “Ideally (he will be at Crystal Palace) which is why I say when they write to me, I will see what I can do. Three weeks doesn’t give us a whole lot of time to organise a tax concession.”
REUTERS
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