How Barcelona are in deep water with the taxman and was Neymar (not £86m Bale) the biggest transfer of all time?

To say the court case in Spain that is attempting to unravel whether Barcelona paid a world record fee for Neymar is complex would be putting it mildly.

Here our man PETE JENSON lays out the facts and shows that if Barca are found guilty, the taxman will be owed much more than the club currently pay.

What might Barcelona have done wrong?

They might have pretended to pay £50million for Neymar when in fact they have paid £78m.

Not yet revealed: The amount Barcelona paid for Neymar may have been around £80million

What do they have to gain from saying they paid less?

If they pay Neymar £78m in the form of signing-on fee and wages, they have to pay tax on it - 52 per cent in the case of the wages. By saying he only cost £50m and only earns £4m-a-year they pay tax on those figures and not the higher ones arrived at from adding on additional contracts that now appear to have come to light. 

Rest: The forward is currently on the sidelines after spraining an ankle against Getafe

So it is primarily the taxman who will be anxious to find out how much was paid for Neymar and whether any of it can be interpreted as ‘disguised wages’?

Yes. But Lionel Messi might be interested, too. He is currently Barcelona’s top earner but if it turns out new boy Neymar who has not won three European Cups and four Ballon d’Ors is earning more he might have something to say about it. It might also make Neymar, and not Gareth Bale, the world’s most expensive player, depending on the currency rates.

Could this all just be a smear campaign designed to destablise them?

That is certainly what the club argue. And it may be that, just as they claim, all they have done is been very clever with the way they have paid for Neymar.

So where do we start?

Well it’s best to begin with what Barcelona president Sandro Rosell says the club paid for Neymar. 

£50m?

Correct. What Rosell does not contest is that Barcelona have paid the company N&N, which belongs to Neymar and his father, the sum of £33m. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo says a contract was signed with N&N as far back as November 15, 2011 which established a payment of £33m to be paid before 2014 with a £8.25m sum paid up-front. 

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Court case: The club reportedly paid sums to companies owned by Neymar's family

It was stipulated in the contract that Neymar would have to pay £33m to Barcelona if he signed for someone else. In June 2013 Barcelona, having already paid N&N £8.25m paid the remaining £25m.

What is contested is that this was paid as a penalty for signing Neymar ahead of 2014 as Barcelona appear to claim or simply part of the original agreement in 2011. But everyone agrees Barcelona paid N&N £33m.

What is also not contested is that Barcelona paid Santos £14m for the player. 

So how do we make this up to £95m?

These are two payments that also seem to have been openly disclosed by all involved. A payment of £7.5m paid for two friendlies between Santos and Barcelona - one which was paid at the start of the season. And a second payment of £6.5m for preferential rights over three Santos players. 

Teamwork: He was in Zurich with fellow Barcelona players Dani Alves (left), Lionel Messi and Xavi (right)

And there are other payments that do not appear to have been so openly disclosed. According to the Monday edition of El Mundo other payments have been made to companies that belong to, or are controlled by the Neymar family, and have been disclosed to  the judge investigating the transfer. 

They are as follows: 

- El Mundo claims Neymar’s father signed a contract guaranteeing that Neymar Jnr’s gross earning would total £45m across the course of his five-year deal. This safeguards the player against Barcelona not winning trophies and the player therefore missing out on bonuses. Neymar’s father would receive a commission of 5 per cent of that sum - £2.25m.

- El Mundo also claim an agreement was signed at the end of July for £650,000-a-year to be paid to Neymar Sport Marketing Limited for the company looking for commercial tie-ups in Brazil. 

Shake on it: The Barcelona player greeting Fernanda Lima at the Ballon d'Or

- And in September 2013, again according to El Mundo, ‘Neymar Consultoría Deportiva y Empresarial’ agreed with Barcelona annual fees of £330,000 for the scouting of players at Santos. These fees are to be paid yearly throughout the five years of Neymar’s contract and are not dependent on any commercial tie-ups or new talents being successfully unearthed. In other words the Neymar family receive the money regardless of whether or not they find the next Neymar or bring any new Brazilian business to Barcelona.

- El Mundo also claim a third originally undisclosed agreement  covers a £410,000-a-year payment to a Proyecto Neymar Junior designed to help poor neighbourhoods in Sao Paolo. 

- And there is also a £8.25m signing-on fee paid last month. 

All this would total £78m.

It may ultimately be impossible to prove that these contracts were indirect payments to Neymar. 

Barcelona officially pay Neymar £5m-a-year rising to £7.5m according to trophies won. It is an amount set well below the club’s top earner Messi who earns £9m before add-ons for trophies won. 

Sent flying: Neymar comes under a heavy challenge against Getafe on his last appearance

If the alleged extra payments made to Neymar & Neymar or linked companies are interpreted as disguised wages they take the players’ earnings to around £12.5m annually. If that is the case then Messi will want to know why he is no longer the club’s top earner.

And the Spanish tax authorities will want to know why they are receiving 52 per cent of 6m and not 52% of 15m?

Barcelona say they have been guilty of nothing more than ‘ingeniería negocial’, a phrase which translates as business engineering - in other words making the most of existing loopholes, bending rules at most; and certainly not breaking them.