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Sportsmen losing millions in tax refunds

By Omulo Okoth

Kenyan athletes based in the West are losing millions of shillings in unclaimed tax refund.

The Standard has learnt that in the US, an estimated $88m (Sh5.2b) tax refunds lies uncollected.

Many athletes do not know that tax refunds in thousands of dollars are due to them from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), yet the limitation period ends on June 15 for those who ran up to June 15, 2005.

Up to 90 Kenyan athletes may benefit if they act before the refund expiry period.

Mr Thomas K Kirui, a Kenyan-born lawyer in Washington DC and Virginia, and a US Army veteran specialising in immigration and tax law, are handling the claims on behalf of some top Kenyan athletes.

His law firm, Kirui and Malalah, PLC, has been pursuing claims to the tune of $2m (Sh120m) in the last two months.

"We were able to secure an aggregate of more than Sh10m in tax refunds for a few elite runners who contacted us last year with respect to their 2003 US tax returns. We assisted the runners by filing returns that they had not filed or by amending ones that were filed without factoring in the above-mentioned allowable deductions," he told The Standard at the weekend.

He is closing in on another $10m (Sh600m) worth of benefits that would have accrued to the athletes but were duped, threatened or payments were delayed until they left the host countries.

Italian, Dutch, and US agents are notorious for tax evasion, exposing the young, inexperienced and sometimes uneducated athletes to financial ruin.

Some are in depression. One depressed athlete committed suicide in Canada on January 1 2006. Some senior athletes who would still be making money cannot travel to the US because the IRS is after them.

"Our worry extends to athletes signing contracts that exclude Kenya from the revenue and our courts from having jurisdiction. Some end on the tracks, run, get pocket money and air ticket back home," says Kipkemoi arap Kirui, a Kenyan resident in Washington DC.

Kenyan athletes, young and old, experienced and inexperienced, find themselves in Boston, Amsterdam or other athletics destinations by their own arrangements, through Athletics Kenya, or sometimes agents in Western cities.

All of them get to these destinations without any knowledge of the host countries’ tax laws.

Almost 95 per cent of all athletes have been duped into signing-off all or part of their earnings from their athletics meets and some have been forced to face the wrath of the taxmen of host countries. Cheques to these young people are sometimes forwarded dubiously through conmen, thus evading taxes and exposing the young athletes to tax penalties when they innocently end up in the same countries to participate in other events.

"We want to expose them, reclaim the money for the athletes and draft legislation to protect the athletes and ensure Kenya has access to these huge revenue from our sports people," says Kirui.

He added: "A structured approach would help our athletes earn from their sweat. We shall be making landmark recommendations to AK, athletes, African Governments and issue warnings to agents here."

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http://www.eastandard.net/print.php?cid=4&id=1143986874[/url]
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[candyryan]

Very interesting article. I think this is going to be a good news for athletes.
regards,
candy

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