The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has confirmed that the children of the deceased Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was the promoter of Olympism in Spain and president of the International Olympic Committee for 21 years, are forced to pay a total of 255,197 euros for non-payment by his father of the wealth tax, as claimed by the Treasury. This has been established by the aforementioned court in a sentence handed down in March 2023, to which EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA has had access and which is addressed to his heirs after the death of Samaranch on April 21, 2010.
The resolution, which is still appealable before the Supreme Court, points out that Juan Antonio Samaranch would have hidden a patrimony from the treasury valued at more than 12 million euros by declaring Switzerland and not Spain as his habitual residence and, therefore, tax. Within this patrimony, three millionaire accounts are included in France and Switzerland and the accrediting tokens of a collection of up to 1,600 works of art, as specified by the court in a resolution for which the magistrate Eduardo Rodríguez Laplaza has been the rapporteur.
In the documentation to which this newspaper has had access, it is explained that Samaranch had declared Switzerland “as his residence since the oldest financial year for which there is information in the databases & rdquor; of Treasury. There, the former president of the IOC, and also one of the key figures in making possible the Olympic Games of Barcelona 92maintained that he lived in the city of Lausanne, mainly in the Lausanne Palace & Spa hotel, which he intended to serve as his habitual residence.
However, the Tax Agency, through public statements by Samaranch, the activity reports of his police escort in Spain or various habits of his daily life, such as restaurant bills and his presence on Sundays in a parish in Barcelona, began to suspect that he did not actually reside in the Swiss hotel. In fact, when the investigation concluded, it was ensured that the difference between the activity “social, personal and professional & rdquor; de Samaranch was “crushingly & rdquor; greater in Spain than in Switzerland.
Research and registration
The resolution of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia last March confirm settlement agreement dictated by the Tax agency for the 2007 financial year. It has been a purely formal matter – the delay in the investigations by the Treasury – which has reduced the potential fine to the Samaranch family, specifically Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. –current Vice President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)– and his sister, Maria Teresa Samaranchmember of the Board of Directors of the International Ice Skating Union.
The Catalan Superior Court of Justice, as a conclusion after several administrative resolutions and appeals, points out that the Treasury inspection he extended his inquiries more than allowed for reasons beyond the control of the heirs. In any case, the recent ruling does include the obstacles to the delivery of information by Samaranch Sr. and his “attitude to say the least evasive”, in the words of the Central Economic-Administrative Tribunal.
“To enter without notice the registered office of an entity that is presumed to be a cover”
The “indications of tax fraud & rdquor; found by the inspection and the lack of collaboration motivated that, in July 2010, that is, barely a couple of months after his death, the Tax Administration had “no other solution than enter the registered office without notice of an entity that is presumed to be a cover& rdquor;, the company JAS, SL, in addition to trying to “prevent the fraud situation from perpetuating its heirs& rdquor;.
This patrimonial company, which “simulated an economic activity”, also held ownership of two houses that Samaranch father came to have in Catalonia: one of 540 square meters on Avenida Diagonal in Barcelona and another of 235 square meters in Santa Cristina d’ Aro, a municipality on the Costa Brava, which was sold at the end of 2006. In the first, and as an example given by the investigation to justify its suspicions that he lived in Spain and not in Switzerland, Samaranch had two domestic workers who regularly resided there.
Heritage in Spain, Switzerland, France and Andorra
In October 2020, the Central Economic-Administrative Court, under the Ministry of Finance, issued a decision ending a lengthy investigation into the recumbent inheritance of the former president of the IOC, that is, on the inherited tax liability for their children. The preliminary inspection that gave rise to said decision, carried out by the Tax Agency delegation in Catalonia, was opened in 2009, declaring a Tax debt for a total of 1.09 million euros unpaid for the wealth tax between 2004 and 2007.
The work of the Treasury inspectors had extended for a total of 584 days, according to the tax certificate included in the sentence, due to both the international requirements that should have been made to the tax authorities of Switzerland and France as long as necessary to appreciate the countless works of art without declaring Likewise, it was concluded that the tax residence to take into account, despite the allegations of the heirs, it should be located in Spain and not in Switzerland.
“The (known) heritage in Spain is more than twice the (known) in Switzerland& rdquor ;, then pointed out Treasury. Regarding income, between 2004 and 2008 alone, Samaranch would have collected from Spanish companies between 570,000 and 1.2 million euros in cash and payments in kind, but the total amount of other income is unknown, as recognized by the treasury. , “some of them coming from abroad, whose concealment supposes having defrauded the Public Treasury amounts greater than the criminal quota & rdquor ;.
Around with the fiscal residence
Faced with the accusations, the family began to file administrative appeals -and later before the courts- trying to challenge the tax investigation with three different arguments: the excessive duration of the inspection, the country in which Samaranch’s tax residence should be located and the improper attribution of assets. Only the first has been finally accepted by the courts, and this has resulted in a substantial reduction in the initial fine, which is still appealable before the high court.
However, the arguments of the family that sought to fix the residence of Samaranch senior in Switzerland are not accepted. The ruling handed down by the First Litigation Section of the Superior Court of Catalonia, which in addition to Laplaza sign the Judges María Abelleira and Isabel Hernández Pascual, acknowledges that “the current olympic movementand this is a notorious fact that can be verified on the internet or in any library or newspaper library, cannot be understood without the personal impulse of Juan Antonio Samaranch“.
He adds, however, that “the foregoing does not allow Mr. Samaranch to spend long periods of time in his hometown, Barcelona, and that it is even possible that in some, or in many years (…), these stays implied a period of permanence in Spanish territory of more than 183 days”. They add that, in any case, “what matters and is discussed here” is whether the “center of interests vital” of the taxpayer had moved to Spain, and there they conclude: “It was always [en España] from 1980 until his death at the headquarters of the Olympic movement, in Lausanne”.
The ownership of the accounts
Thirdly, it also rejects the justice that the Treasury had made an improper attribution of assets, that is, that the inspection had not been able to prove “reliably” that the ownership of the investigated accounts corresponded to the family. These deposits, opened in the Swiss entities UBS and Private Banking, as well as in the entity Bank Credit Andorraaccumulated 7,057,613 euros during the last year submitted to tax inspection.
Thus, only the argument relating to the prescription has been accepted, since the inspection of the Tax Agency has been extended in time beyond the twelve months established by law. In the various resolutions on this issue in particular, the Administration repeatedly insists on pointing out the lack of collaboration of those investigated, who prevented the proceedings from advancing “in a reasonable manner”.
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However, the High Court recalls that the consequences of the delays cannot be attributed to the taxpayer without further ado, since the provision of information “can only be relevant in calculating the term when it prevents the development of the inspection activity from continuing normally & rdquor ;. In this particular case, he concludes that the action to liquidate has prescribed for the three periods investigated, between 2004 and 2006, leaving only 2007 as punishable.
EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA has addressed the company of the late Juan Antonio Samaranch, GBS Finanzas, on several occasions to convey orally and in writing to his family and their legal representatives questions about the sentence and the actions of the heirs of the former president of the International Olympic Committee. This newsroom has not received any response to the questions sent. Nor has the press office of the International Olympic Committee, based in Lausanne, responded.