IPL: a tax windfall for foreign exchequers

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

New direct taxes code likely to hit PFC opsNSSO to estimate GST taxpayer baseProposed MAT rate could be cut by 1%Revenue secy hints at plugging tax leakages

New Delhi, Feb 27: The home countries of the international cricketers playing for the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year would rake in about $6 million as taxes, about three times the sum Indian taxmen would get from these players.

Assuming that these cricketers are in the highest tax brackets of their countries, the Australian exchequer would get richer by nearly $2 million from what IPL pays to nine Australian cricketers. The three highest paid Aussie players, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee and Adam Gilchrist, will contribute over 52% of the sum.

The South African government will earn close to $1.3 million, followed by Sri Lankan and Pakistani governments that are likely to mop up close to a million dollars each from the IPL earnings.

The three most sought after Sri Lankan players—Muttiah Muralitharan, Tillekeratne Dilshan and Farveez Maharoof—would pay almost 58% of the tax monies their government would garner from IPL.

Similarly, for Pakistan, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul and Mohd Asif may pitch in over $600,000, which is more than 60% of the IPL-related tax outgo to their home country.

Incidentally, when it comes to tax, Pakistani players have more lose than their counterparts in Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. “India has double tax avoidance agreements with these four countries, but not with Pakistan. Thus, while other players can avail of tax credits (in their respective countries) for the entire 10% tax they would pay to India, Pakistanis do not have that cushion,” said Amitabh Singh, tax partner, Ernst & Young.