The Spaniard, who retired at the close of the 2019 period, suggests that the ‘pressure and anguish’ caused by the ‘unfair and twisted persecution’ in excess of his correct position as a Swiss tax resident, ‘ended up impacting my professional life’.
Lorenzo adds that the ordeal ‘ defeated me emotionally’ in a way that his monitor rivals ‘never did’…
‘In check out of the modern news about the judicial disputes that I have faced towards the Spanish Tax Authorities, I want to publish you a several traces to give you my vision of what has occurred.
‘As you all know, a lot of several years in the past I made a decision to transfer to Lugano, a compact but fashionable Swiss town barely an hour from Milan. I moved there, like lots of other athletes, because I wanted the tranquillity that the town provided me when I was not touring midway about the planet and mainly because of the probability of instruction at the Yamaha staff services (60 km from my residence). And of course, I also appreciated the tax regime that it offers its citizens, substantially additional reasonable and fewer aggressive and confiscatory than that of other international locations.
‘In June 2017, the Spanish Tax Authorities opened a tax audit difficult my position as a Swiss tax resident. The assessment ended up masking 2013 to 2016. Despite the actuality that the Swiss authorities insisted that my condition was properly legal, the Spanish Tax Authorities generally questioned every little thing. Consequently, they sent hundreds of requests to my sponsors and groups, in search of not only information and facts but also my discredit in entrance of community view, producing me seem in the media as a tax evader. They even went so far as to send out some brokers to the paddock itself to power me to indicator a document. These individuals blocked my exit when I was likely to get on the bicycle minutes just before the begin of a race. Similarly, I had to progress the revenue they demanded from me, to avoid embargoes and humiliating situations (these kinds of as appearing on the record of fraudsters). A genuine scorn.
‘I have suffered a large amount these five and a 50 percent several years. As a expert, I have usually experimented with to stay focused on the races by isolating myself from the sounds of 3rd functions. But I need to confess that the tension and anguish that this unfair and twisted persecution of the Spanish Tax Authorities prompted me ended up influencing my experienced everyday living. They defeated me emotionally (as opposed to other competitors never did).
‘A yr and a fifty percent back, at the close of June 2021, already retired from the competitiveness, I finally saw the light-weight at the conclusion of the tunnel. The Courtroom upheld with my lawyer’s persuasive arguments about the years 2013, 2014 and 2015. And normally, they returned the dollars that I had innovative. Still, I never bought any sort of maintenance for the damage induced. No compensation for damages. Not an apology, general public or private, letter or phone phone. Nothing.
‘In December, a new pronouncement with regards to 2016 was issued. I am self-assured that this nightmare will stop now.
‘Taxes are important and if the funds is effectively managed by the Administration (which is not generally the situation), contributing is something to be very pleased of. Nevertheless, taxes will have to be paid wherever you reside. The Spanish Tax Authorities started out a witch hunt and assumed they experienced located a scapegoat. They had been improper. Of course, no person is going to give me again the sleepless nights or the peace I wanted to focus on the circuits.’
Jorge Lorenzo Guerrero
