Several of the world’s top tennis players are likely to avoid leading tournaments in Britain because of the UK government’s policy of taxing their endorsement income, according to the man who runs Wimbledon.
Wimbledon organizers said on Tuesday that this year’s prize fund would be ￡14.6 million (US$23.81 million), an increase of 6.4 percent from last year, while the singles champions will each pocket ￡1.1 million — up 10 percent.
Those numbers and the kudos of the tournament mean there is no risk of any player staying away from the Grand Slam, but the pre-Wimbledon Queens event and the ATP finals could suffer, Wimbledon’s chief executive Ian Ritchie said in an interview.
“Of course we have no problem with players being taxed on prize money, but there is no doubt that the tax on endorsement income is a big disincentive,” Ritchie said. “There are plenty of places wanting to take the ATP finals. We want to keep that here and we want the best players at Queens, but it seems individual sports are the only events where sportsmen are taxed for endorsement income.”
Government rules state that athletes competing or even just practicing in the UK are taxed a proportion of their income from endorsements and sponsorships even if those deals have nothing to do with Britain.
The rules are the reason triple Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt stayed away from last year’s London Diamond League meeting, while there are also fears they could affect some of the country’s smaller golf tournaments.
“Of course we understand that people might wonder why, at a time of economic difficulty when everyone is making sacrifices, we should be trying to do this for multi-millionaire sportsmen,” Ritchie said. “But I think the overarching view is that what will happen is that these guys will choose not to come — it is definitely on the players’ radar — and so the public are deprived of a chance to see them and the UK economy also misses out on what are huge benefits.”
“We reckon the money gained on tax is about ￡7 million a year, but inward investment on Tour Finals alone is ￡100 million so it’s a matter of balance,” Ritchie said.
“We also find it somewhat incongruous that team events aren’t charged in the same way,” he added.
Ritchie said tennis officials have been lobbying the UK government for two years on the issue, but have yet to receive any reply.
The Wimbledon chief also defended the hike in prize money.
“We are aware of the sensibilities in the current climate, but we think we’ve got the balance right,” he said. “We’re competitive with the other Grand Slams and the foreign exchange rate has a big impact.”
“We don’t want to chase the exchange rate and to necessarily be the highest prize money, but economically the Championships is doing very well as you can see from the new contracts we’ve been able to secure,” Ritchie said.
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