MADRID, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid football star Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to testify in a tax fraud case on July 31 after having been accused of hiding income from Spanish tax authorities, local media reported on Tuesday.
The Real Madrid forward is accused of using a business structure created in 2010 to allegedly hide his image rights income in Spain between 2011 and 2014 which involves a tax fraud of 14.76 million euros (16.46 million U.S. dollars).
On June 13, the prosecutor's office said he had done that voluntarily in order to avoid his tax obligations in Spain, explaining that it based the accusations on a report from Spain's tax agency.
Gestifute, the agency representing the player, had denied the accusations saying that "there is no tax evasion scheme... there has never been any hiding nor any intention to hide anything".
It also explained that the case could be related to different interpretations of the British and Spanish tax systems about where to declare some revenues.
A football match between Real Madrid and Barcelona is planned to be played in Hard Rock Miami on July 29, so the football player would have around 30 hours to go back to Spain and appear in court.