A Super Tax on Australian soccer players overseas

The Super Tax on the mining industry has created a great deal of interest, in that there is already the normal tax at the company rate on regular mining profits, and now the Government wants to impose an additional tax, 40%, on the super profits that mining companies make over and above their regular profits.

So the question is, should the same principal apply to those Australian super star soccer players who are raking it in by playing soccer in the European honey pot of professional football?

The reality is that there 250,000 youngsters in Australia playing soccer. Many of their parents egg them on to greater and higher things, as the so-called rewards are so great. They sacrifice their time, money and effort, with an eye on the prizes that await them in Europe.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/kids-given-everything-for-a-legup-on-the-field-20100409-ryoo.html

Well-Being Australia chairman Mark Tronson, whose long-term ministering of sports people includes being cricket chaplain and coordinating respite for athletes and coaches, says that the same principal could also be applied elsewhere. He cites many other Australian professional athletes who are now benefiting from high revenues – these include tennis players, golfers, motor racing drivers, rugby and rugby league players, cricketers in the IPL and many more.

The argument goes something like this; which is similar to the argument the Government is using about big multi-national mining companies: these Australians are taking their talents overseas and creating a talent drain. There is a sense of being un-Australian in that they are taking the big money, lining their own pockets and putting nothing back into Australian sport and the next generation of Australian youngsters.

Soccer players in particular, the argument goes, do not honour junior soccer within Australia if they run off to Europe.

Following the argument 'for' a super profits tax on mining companies, if these professional soccer players were to pay a Super Tax on their huge earnings, it would go straight back to the coffers of the Australian Sports Commission that provides the hand-outs to junior sport throughout the nation.

The argument is further put, that should they refuse to meet this quite reasonable commitment, their passports be suspended and that this methodology be pursued with all other nations for the benefit of their indigenous sports.

M V Tronson says that if this were to occur, then logically the same argument should apply to all businesses. It should apply across the board, to the corporate world as well. There would of course, as there is with the Mining companies, be many arguments about what level of profits were to be considered 'super' profits!

Taxes were a constant issue in the New Testament; however, Jesus always advocated that his disciples and his followers obey the law and pay their taxes. There are many examples; and in Romans 13:2 (NIV), we find one of the many statements that indicates that obeying the authorities is equivalent to obeying God: "Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."