MotoGP: Marc Marquez rumoured to have moved to Andorra for tax reasons
TWICE-WORLD champion in MotoGP Marc Márquez is reported to have moved to Andorra to reduce his taxes.
The 21-year-old, who scooped up the top title in his rookie year, 2013, and repeated the performance the following season, is said to be earning around 10 million euros a year – but by establishing his permanent residence in the Pyrénéen country, he will reduce his tax liability to an annual 30,000 euros.
Spanish national daily broadsheet El Mundo and the national newspaper for the principality itself, El Diari d’Andorra, both say he is set to head north and is just waiting for the smaller country’s immigration deparment to approve his residence application.
Márquez and his brother Àlex, 18, who was Moto2 world champion this year, come from the town of Cervera in the land-locked province of Lleida, in the north-eastern region of Catalunya – just 120 kilometres from Andorra.
The young talent is not the only Spanish celebrity who lives abroad, although not all of these do so for tax reasons – a number of film and music stars live in the USA because their work is based there – but international cyclist Alberto Contador and Márquez’s MotoGP colleague Dani Pedrosa both live in Switzerland for fiscal reasons, and their compatriot and fellow rider Jorge Lorenzo will soon become Márquez’s new neighbour as he, too, lives in Andorra for the same motives.
Not all celebrities who ‘live’ abroad for tax reasons have made their new countries their permanent homes – some simply reside there for the minimum of 183 days, being half the year plus a day, required by the Spanish authorities for any person to be considered a tax resident in another country.
Any person who lives in Spain for 183 days of the year or more is classed as a Spanish tax resident.
