Kolkata: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza hasn’t had a bright start to 2017. She lost in the third round of Australian Open women’s doubles and had to settle for the runner-up slot in the mixed doubles section. Going by her track record, Mirza should be back to winning ways soon, but now she faces problems off-court too.
The Indian tennis ace Mirza has been issued a notice by the Service Tax Department of India for an alleged non-payment or evasion of service tax. The Service Tax office in Hyderabad has issued summons to the tennis star on February 6 and she will have to appear before it in person or by an authorised agent on February 16.
The notice, which does not specify the case in which Mirza has been summoned, said, “Whereas an investigation against you about non-payment/evasion of Service Tax/contravention of provisions of Finance Act 1994 and Rules made there under is being inquired. I have reasons to believe you are in possession of facts or/and documents and things which are relevant to the inquiry.”
“You are hereby summoned under Central Excise Act, 1944 made applicable to service Tax matters under Finance Act, 1994 to appear before the Office in person or by an authorised agent on February 16 to give evidence truthfully on such matters concerning the enquiry as you may be asked to produce the documents and things,” it said.
“If you fail to comply with this summons and intentionally avoid to attend or to give evidence and to produce the documents and things, without a lawful excuse, you will be liable to be punished under the relevant provisions of IPC,” the notice added.
Yet, Mirza isn’t the first professional athlete to be embroiled in a tax evasion controversy. Over the years, multiple sports personalities have been found guilty or been accused of tax evasion. Only recently in July last year, the five-time Ballon D’or winner Lionel Messi was sentenced to 21 months in prison after a Spanish Court found him guilty on three counts of tax fraud. However, according to the Spanish law, a tax prison sentence under two years can be served under probation, so Messi was let off. Messi was also ordered to pay a fine of about $2.2 million, while his father who was also found guilty by the court was fined €1.5m.
Back in 2002, three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker was sentenced to two years of probation by a German court for failing to pay taxes. Becker finally paid around €3 million in taxes, including interest after accepting his guilt. Recently even Brazilian superstar Neymar was accused of hiding his real earnings through three family-owned companies and his assets were frozen by a Sau Paulo court in 2016.
(With inputs from Agencies)