2023-10-19 16:15:36
In the 2024 draft budget, the extremely advantageous tax measures in favor of “international sports federations” have the “objective” of attracting Fifa to France, according to an internal source at the world football body, contacted by AFP THURSDAY. As noted by the daily The echoesby drawing out 49.3 in the Assembly to pass the first part of the budget, the government retained an amendment from the Renaissance presidential group aimed at establishing an extremely advantageous tax framework for “international sports federations”.
The system offers an exemption from corporate tax, business property tax and business value added tax, as well as an exemption from income tax for employees of these federations domiciled in France “until in the fifth calendar year following that of their first taking office.
“An important element of attractiveness, source of economic benefits for France”
Questioned by AFP, Macronist MP Belkhir Belhaddad, the first signatory of the Renaissance amendment, affirmed “that he was not at the origin and discovered” the device. “As it is written, I am totally against it. You will never hear me make this type of proposal. I asked that my signature be withdrawn and that we rework the amendment in a new reading.” The government has not confirmed that this amendment aims to attract more to France Fifa, which already has a branch in Paris, but whose headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland.
At the Ministry of Sports, it is emphasized that “this provision aims to extend to international sports federations, in their role of governance and development of sport, a regime already applied in France to international organizations” and that it concerns “only activities non-commercial”. “This is an important element of attractiveness, a source of potential economic benefits for France, in a context where we are preparing to host more than 30 major international sporting events in the coming years,” adds the ministry.
An internal source at Fifa, for his part, assured that the “objective” targeted was indeed “Fifa”. This federation opened a branch in Paris in June 2021, responsible for relations with the federations, technical cooperation in favor of the development of football and also houses a clearing house responsible in particular for solidarity mechanisms. The supreme body of world football was established in Paris in 1904, before moving in 1932 to Zurich, which became its main headquarters in 2007.
In September, Fifa had planned to move more than a hundred employee positions from its headquarters in Zurich to Miami, Florida, a source with knowledge of the matter indicated.
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