Football clubs which owe money to the state in the form of unpaid taxes can re-enter the government’s tax repayment plan if they can pay the instalments they missed, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Tuesday.
Speaking to journalists outside the general assembly of the Cyprus shipping chamber in Limassol, he moved to defend himself against criticism of a perceived lack of action on the matter on his part.
“This government took office in March 2023. In May 2023, this government made a new plan for clubs to repay their debts. This government, with the aim of helping the clubs, increased the contributions they receive from the betting tax,” he said.
He added that the indebted football clubs are “in contact” with tax commissioner Sotiris Markides, and that it is Markides who is responsible for the upholding of the repayment plan.
“If they can pay, or, through agreements with [Markides], they can pay the amounts which were missed … they can continue to exist in the plan which, I repeat, this government introduced in May 2023,” he said.
The tax repayment scheme foresees that all debts will be paid by June 2037.
Markides had offered a similar opinion while addressing the House finance committee on Monday, though he had stressed that the reinstatement into the government’s instalment plan of clubs which had fallen out of it is not a decision taken by the tax department, but one which will be taken by cabinet in time.
“My position on their reinstatement into the plan is the same as what I would say about any taxpayer. If they pay almost 50 per cent [of their outstanding tax debts accrued since 2023], they could be reinstated with strict monitoring – with nothing but strict monitoring and without any ease, mind, as society requires that it be closely monitored,” he said.
The figure of 50 per cent was the target set by the government earlier this year for five football clubs – Ael, Apoel, Apollon, Anorthosis, and Ethnikos Achna – to be reinstated.
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