How Ronaldo is set for a huge pay rise at Man Utd
FT Desk
- Updated: 28 Sept 2022 19:28 BST
- 3 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo is set to receive a massive increase in net salary following the UK government’s decision to abolish the maximum tax bracket on income tax.
The UK’s new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng caused huge uproar last week when he announced in parliament that he was scrapping the extra tax rate for people earning over £150,000-a-year.
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This means that everyone earning above that amount in the UK will see their tax rates cut from 45% to 40% of income, which is the tax bracket for everyone earning above £50,271-a-year.
Given Ronaldo already earns £510,000-a-week, he naturally fits into the previous top tax bracket and would have been paying 45% tax on that amount.
He is now set for a huge increase in actual income given he will now only be charged 40% on that.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has estimated that Kwarteng’s changes to taxation will see Ronaldo’s net salary rise by an extra £1.3m.
How much more money will Ronaldo make?
"Cristiano Ronaldo's take home will increase by roughly £1.3m over the course of 12 months, which is a lot of money. I’ll always defend footballer’s pay. We live in a market-based environment," Maguire told the i newspaper.
"It is a short career and the majority of players don’t earn the money that provides the focus for people like me who will show the strange benefits that these things can bring. I’m sure it wasn’t the driving force of Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision-making but it does illustrate the impact it has.
"The tax issue in its own right isn’t significant but what will happen is the clue: there’ll be a significant uplift in terms of net pay and you have to ask yourself what’s going to happen in that situation? Is it going to have a positive impact on the economy?
"Ronaldo gets an extra £1.3m, he’s going to save that as he already has a huge take home whereas it could be argued if you get Manchester United’s 1,000 part-time staff an extra £1,300 each they’re going to spend that. It’s the nature of income distribution, people who are poorer spend because they can’t afford to save."
Ronaldo has failed to pay back his extra earnings on the pitch so far this season as he
has scored just one goal in all competitions – a penalty in the Europa League.
