Maradona’s family file court injunction to avoid paying wealth tax

Argentina’s government passed the one-off tax in December that applies to Argentines with more than $2.2m in assets

Diego Maradona holds up the World Cup trophy after Argentina beat West Germany 3-2 in the Fifa World Cup Final in 1986. The family of the late footballer has filed a court injunction to avoid paying aShow more

The family of late football legend Diego Maradona and Argentine star Carlos Tevez filed court injunctions to avoid paying a new wealth tax, the latest example of the difficulty in making millionaires comply with the levy.

Heirs of Maradona, who died last year, entered a formal complaint on Friday in a national appellate court, according to local news outlet Perfil’s sports website 442.

Tevez filed an injunction on Thursday, according to a registration of the case in the justice system docket. Tevez’s lawyer, Juan Carlos Nicolini, confirmed the filing, which focuses on whether the levy is constitutional.

Mr Nicolini said his client’s complaint is confidential and declined to give more details. He estimated that currently there are already more than 100 presentations made by individuals seeking exemption from the tax.

In December, Argentina’s government passed a one-time, so-called extraordinary contribution that about 13,000 affluent citizens are expected to pay. The tax applies to Argentines with more than $2.2 million in assets, and the levy varies depending on the amount and where the assets are held. The deadline to pay was Friday.

Lawmakers estimated last year the tax would rake in about 300 billion pesos ($3.2bn), but through March, data show that the tax authority received just 6.1bn pesos, or about 2 per cent of that target. Dozens of rich Argentines are challenging the tax in court, calling it “confiscatory”.

Before his death, Maradona expressed support for the tax, writing on Instagram that “in this moment of crisis, help is needed from those of us who have most”. Maradona died in November, before it was approved.

Tevez plays for Argentina's most famous team, Boca Juniors, where he won 10 cups. He was born in Fuerte Apache, an impoverished neighborhood in the metro Buenos Aires area. In 2019, Netflix released the series, El Apache, a historical fiction account of his life.

He started playing as a child in the lower ranks of Boca Juniors, but his scoring ability catapulted him to Brazil and then to European football, where he played for almost 10 years and made a fortune. Tevez is Argentina’s most-decorated footballer after Lionel Messi, having notched 29 international and national titles on teams such as Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus.