LEE MARRIOTT is senior tax manager at the Liverpool office of accountants Baker Tilly. He deals with the personal taxation of a number of Premier League footballers, and is actively involved in Baker Tilly’s business partnership with the Professional Footballers’ Association.
Lee is a Lincoln City fan and this is his working day:
7am: Alarm goes off and my wife gets up. This gives me 30 minutes to snooze until it’s my turn. Fortunately, even with the joys of the Big Dig, it is only a 10-minute drive to the office at Old Hall Street, in the city centre.
8am: With my vente extra shot hazelnut latte in hand, it’s time to review my emails. It’s been an extremely busy start to the year. Not only is there the football transfer window to contend with, there’s the tax return deadline, too. Luckily, I only have two emails that require immediate attention – a football agent in France is enquiring about the repayment due to his client. The other concerns a father of a player who is planning to come over from Australia and would like to arrange a meeting.
9.30am: First meeting of the day is with the agent of a foreign player who has been in the UK for a number of years. As you can imagine, we get enquiries on a host of issues – with the current hot topic being how the proposed changes to the taxation of non-domiciles will affect their clients. I think it’s fair to say the news hasn’t gone down well that most players without a UK passport may have to declare overseas’ income after they’ve been here for seven years – or pay £30,000 annually.
11.30am: At the request of a club’s player liaison officer, I pop over to Manchester to chat with one of their players who arrived in the UK during the previous tax year. He has just realised he has a pressing issue that needs resolving – and, quite rightly, he doesn’t want to pay the £100 penalty. Despite many of the players that I represent earning huge salaries, they all like to make sure their tax affairs are up to date and avoid paying unnecessary fines.
12.30pm: Back on the road and in the car again to head north to another club’s training ground, where I need to track down ten players to discuss personal tax issues. I do not anticipate that I will catch all of them as a couple are in Africa for the African Cup of Nations. Fortunately, I get signatures from seven. At least they’ve chosen a nice restaurant for a spot of lunch.
3pm: Back to the third and final club of the day. Here the tax returns are already completed, so it’s just a case of collecting cheques. This is not as easy as it should be. Also, one of the club’s former players is being pursued for tax by the Revenue in France, so I pick up the necessary paperwork and take it back to the office.
4pm: Back at my desk, I return two calls to HMRC and make three calls to enquire on the progress of a number of revenue enquiries and reply to a couple of emails.
5.30pm: Over to the Restaurant, Bar and Grill for an informal meeting with an intermediary and a glass of red wine.
6.30pm: With a busy day behind me, I’d like to say I went to the gym – but I didn’t. Went home to put my feet up and dream about the Maldives later this month instead.
