Spain to keep 'Beckham law' on taxation

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2009

MADRID (AFP) — Spain's ruling Socialist Party on Tuesday withdrew its support for a motion that would have ended the so-called "Beckham law" under which foreign footballers receive tax benefits.

The Socialists had earlier agreed to support a move by the IU-ICV, a coalition of leftist and Green parties, to introduce the measure "to curb the abuse of taxation privileges of elite footballers."

The law, first conceived to aid foreign business investment, allows foreign footballers playing in Spain to be taxed on only 24 percent of their income, instead of 43 percent for other Spaniards in the same income bracket.

It is popularly know as the "Beckham law", after English footballing icon David Beckham, who was the first to benefit after his arrival at Real Madrid in...