Neymar hails 'great victory' against tax authorities

Barcelona superstar Neymar claimed "a great victory" on Thursday after seeing a 50 million euro fine imposed by Brazilian tax authorities reportedly halved on appeal.

An ongoing disagreement 

Neymar had argued that he was within his rights to have his family control his lucrative image rights. Yet, Brazilian prosecutors had insisted that such a procedure encouraged tax evasion.

The new financial calculation has not been made, but the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper estimated on Thursday that the original fine of 188 million reais (about 50 million euros) imposed in March 2016 could be halved.

"We won a great victory, which belongs to God. Our family businesses have been recognized as legitimate," the player's father Neymar Santos trumpeted on social media.

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Barça move remains under scrutiny

Neymar has also been fighting lengthy legal battles over his move to Barcelona in 2013.

Barcelona had originally published the transfer figure as 57.1 million euros, with 40 million euros of that given to the player's family. Spanish authorities, however, believed the true transfer figure was at least 83 million euros.

In December last year, a Spanish court ratified a deal that left Barcelona with a 5.5-million-euro fine but avoiding trial on tax evasion charges over the contested 2013 transfer.

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