Jordan Henderson

[Norbs]

Can't come home or he'll get taxed.

How does that work? Surely it's a tax for exiting Saudi Arabia, shouldn't matter where he's going to

[dom9]

How does that work? Surely it's a tax for exiting Saudi Arabia, shouldn't matter where he's going to

Non-dom status and all that.

He'll get taxed on his overseas earnings if he comes back within a tax year. Or somthing.

[red g]

Can't come home or he'll get taxed.

You would think he has enough money not to worry about Tax to put family first.

[Norbs]

Non-dom status and all that.

He'll get taxed on his overseas earnings if he comes back within a tax year. Or somthing.

Ah, so the tax-free law is something set by UK government not Saudi one? You'd have thought the.tax burden would be at higher rate

[dom9]

Ah, so the tax-free law is something set by UK government not Saudi one? You'd have thought the.tax burden would be at higher rate

Yep, the UK govt will tax him if he comes back too soon.

I don't think he's even paying tax in Saudi.

There was an article detailing all this stuff in the Athletic recently.

https://theathletic.com/5187114/2024/01/09/saudi-arabia-tax-football/

Saudi Arabia, tax and why it is expensive for players like Jordan Henderson to come home
Sarah Shephard
Jan 9, 2024
263

Save Article
Last summer, the list of high-profile players leaving some of Europe’s biggest clubs to join the Saudi Pro League seemed to get longer by the day. What started with a multi-million-pound move for Cristiano Ronaldo in December 2022 expanded in the summer of 2023 to tantalising offers for the likes of Karim Benzema from Real Madrid, Roberto Firmino from Liverpool, Sadio Mane from Bayern Munich, Ruben Neves from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aymeric Laporte from Manchester City.

And many, many more.

Including Jordan Henderson. The former Liverpool captain joined Al Ettifaq last July, while their head coach Steven Gerrard was using his connections to also bring in the likes of Georginio Wijnaldum from Paris Saint-Germain and Demarai Gray from Everton.

Henderson faced intense criticism over his move. Some questioned it on a moral and ethical standing, given he had previously positioned himself as an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and was now moving to a country where consensual same-sex acts are criminalised.

Others questioned it from a career trajectory standpoint. This was a player still being selected for international duty. A player still being asked to perform on the game’s biggest global stages.

Why would he choose to play his club football at a level that was so far below where he was capable of operating?

“I wanted something that would excite me,” Henderson told The Athletic in an interview five weeks into his Saudi career. “It needed to be something that I felt as though I could add value in and (…) try something new — a new challenge and for different reasons.”

Six months on, Henderson’s “why” has been eclipsed by something stronger. A sense of disillusionment with his (and his family’s) new lifestyle and with the experiences he’s been having on the pitch.

As The Athletic reported on Monday, the England midfielder wants out, and a move back to the Premier League would be his ideal scenario.


Who could possibly match his Saudi wages, though? Henderson’s wages were reported to be close to £700,000/$917,000 per week, though he told The Athletic that he was earning “good money” but not “the numbers that were reported”.

On top of that, who could afford to soften the tax blow that comes with any player returning to the UK from Saudi ahead of schedule?

The wages on offer in Saudi have tempted many players out there. But for those wishing to return to the UK early, there are tax implications they will have to consider before packing their suitcases to return home. Here’s what you (and they) need to know.

What’s the issue?
No income tax is levied on footballers’ salaries in Saudi Arabia, compared to a combined rate of at least 47 per cent of UK income tax and National Insurance contributions for earnings over £125,140 per year in the UK. In the case of Henderson, it has been reported that his salary remains tax free only if he honours the first two years of his contract, with Saudi Arabia otherwise operating a flat income tax rate of 20 per cent.

If you are leaving the UK to take a full-time job elsewhere, such as playing full-time for a Saudi Pro League club, then you should become a non-UK tax resident from the day you leave, meaning anything you earn in Saudi from the date you leave should be tax-free.

But that only works, says tax expert Pete Hackleton, if you properly break your UK tax residence. “What the rules say is that, to get that split-year treatment, so that you’re non-resident from the day you leave, you have to leave the UK for the rest of that tax year and for the whole of the following tax year.

“For players who moved in the summer of 2023, that means they need to be out of the UK past April 5, 2024 and then for the whole of the next tax year, so until April 5, 2025.

“If you go out there and you’re earning $20million a year, tax-free and you’re out there for a year and a half and then come back, you might not realise that actually that $30m might be rolled back into the UK tax debt because you weren’t out for a full tax year.”

The difference in earnings would be huge. For example, a £700,000 per week deal signed last summer would earn players £58.8 million tax-free before the end of the next financial year. That drops to £32.34 million under the top tax rate.

Players can return to visit the UK for up to 90 days in a tax year and retain non-UK tax residence status, as long as no more than 30 were spent working.

But for the likes of Henderson, who are seeking a route back to the UK full-time, or managers who are fired and decide to come back to the UK, there will be an almighty tax bill to face.

What about loan moves?
Players could be left with the same problem even if they return to the UK on a loan deal because they still might not have broken UK tax residence.

“If you come back too soon you could be pulled back in and will effectively be treated as a continuing tax resident,” says Hackleton.

“Talking to some of the agents we work with, that would be part of the negotiation: ‘If you’re going to come back then it’s going to cost you X amount and therefore you’ll need to be recompensed for that if you’re going to come back.’”

Is there a way around it?
To be a non-UK tax resident, you need to be in full-time employment abroad. So one option could be for players to move to a different country for the remainder of the time they need to be out of the UK.

“You might have been in Saudi for nine months or a year and then you might have an offer to go to Spain or Germany and that might be an option rather than coming back to the UK and pulling that whole amount back into the UK tax debt,” says Hackleton, who works for accountancy firm Saffery and advises a range of corporate and individual clients, primarily in the sports and entertainment sector.

Whether you are a tax resident depends, in most countries, on things like the number of days you spend in the country. Hackleton points to Spain, where individuals become residents for tax purposes if they spend more than 183 days in the country during a calendar year.


“Let’s say you moved from the UK to Saudi in summer 2023, you are there for a season, you’re weighing up your options, and in summer 2024 you get an offer to come back to the UK. If you moved to Spain at the end of July 2024, where they do their tax on a calendar year basis, you would only be in Spain for around five months for the 2024 calendar year, which would be less than the 183-day threshold.

“So from a Spanish perspective, you’re moving into Spain for the first time, you’ve never been a Spanish tax resident before, you’re going to become a player in Spanish football from July 2024 — you would only be taxed on your Spanish salary from the day you arrive onwards.

“Anything you earned in another country before you came to Spain wouldn’t be brought into the Spanish tax net.”

How do players decide?
Any player who decides they want to return to the UK from Saudi before they have “properly” broken their UK tax residency will have to weigh up how much it’s going to cost them to come back against how much they want to leave.

Hackleton adds: “Then it’s a conversation with the club they’re potentially joining: are they willing to recompense the player for some or part of that? And can you make a deal work on that basis?”

£TWENTY EIGHT MILLION tax bill

[Catrin]

Ah, so the tax-free law is something set by UK government not Saudi one? You'd have thought the.tax burden would be at higher rate

Uk tax residents are taxed on worldwide income whereas non-residents are taxed on UK income only. He hasn’t been in Saudi long enough to break UK tax residence so in returning he would become liable for UK tax on all those millions earned there so far.

[Cerbie]

Uk tax residents are taxed on worldwide income whereas non-residents are taxed on UK income only. He hasn’t been in Saudi long enough to break UK tax residence so in returning he would become liable for UK tax on all those millions earned there so far.

If he is resident there he can break his UK tax residence from the date he moves. I think the 90 days are pro-rated for the remainder of the tax year.

It will depend on how many days he has left from the date he returns to the start of the new tax year.

[Liverpool]

Every day for about 10 days now clear briefing from the Henderson camp, no lessons learned

[Mark79]

[ame]https://twitter.com/_pauljoyce/status/1747405377287684235[/ame]

[SB]

So he’ll beheading home soon

[BG1973]

Those disadvantaged kids our players and manager visit from time to time would really appreciate the portion of that tax bill that would be allocated to those services.

But I guess Jordan needs the money to pay for his rainbow laces when he gets back.

[Norbs]

So he’ll beheading home soon

Very good

[SB]

Those disadvantaged kids our players and manager visit from time to time would really appreciate the portion of that tax bill that would be allocated to those services.

But I guess Jordan needs the money to pay for his rainbow laces when he gets back.

Yeah I agree. if the money goes to the right places it’s a no brainer hey.

[Mark79]

[ame]https://twitter.com/David_Ornstein/status/1747520530914136244[/ame]

[SB]

Better off in a slower league than returning to the PL