Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho accused of tax fraud by Spanish prosecutors

Spanish tax authorities are investigating his time in Spain while Real Madrid manager

Mourinho is alleged to owe tax authorities nearly £3m (Getty)

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has been accused of tax fraud by Spanish prosecutors, who are investigating his time in charge at Real Madrid.

Spanish prosecutors said on Tuesday that they had filed the claim against Mourinho on two counts of tax fraud from 2011 and 2012.

The Portuguese manager is alleged to owe tax authorities €3.3m (£2.9m) for failing to declare revenues from his image rights “with the aim of obtaining illicit profits”, a prosecutor said in a statement.

Under Spanish law, the tax office can investigate alleged fraud up to four years back in its records, with their tax year running the course of a normal calendar year ending on 31 December – unlike in the UK.

However, tax returns can be filed up to six months after the end of the tax year, meaning any earnings in 2012 could have been paid as late as 30 June 2013, which enables Spanish tax authorities in 2017 to look back that far in their records to identify potential tax fraud. Mourinho left Real Madrid in the summer of 2013.

The 54-year-old already settled a previous claim against him in 2014 which resulted in a penalty of €1.15m, but tax authorities later found that some of the information presented in that settlement was incorrect, the prosecutors said.

Mourinho spent three years in Madrid and won the title in 2012 (Getty)

Mourinho has hit back against the most recent allegations, however, insisting that he has not received any contact from Spanish prosecutors and that his taxes are in check.

A statement published on his behalf read: "Jose Mourinho has not received any notification with regards to the news published today.

"To this date, neither the Spanish tax authorities, not the public prosecutor have contacted Jose Mourinho or his advisers who were hired for the inspection process.

"Jose Mourinho, who lived in Spain from June 2010 until May 2013, paid more than €26m in taxes, with an average tax rate over 41 per cent, and accepted the regularisation proposals made by the Spanish tax authorities in 2015 regarding the years 2011 and 2012 and entering into a settlement agreement regarding 2013."

The Portuguese is the latest big name in football to have been accused of tax fraud in Spain, after Barcelona star Lionel Messi who was given a 21-month jail term.

And it comes immediately after it was announced that Cristiano Ronaldo will testify in his own tax fraud case next month.

The Real Madrid star is accused of defrauding Spanish authorities of €14.7m between 2011 and 2014 and will now testify on 31 July, it has been confirmed.

Ronaldo took legal advantage of what is known in Spain as “the Beckham law” - which allows foreign sportspersons to pay 24.75 per cent income tax, rather than the 48 per cent applied to Spanish nationals. Athletes must still, however, pay taxes on other incomes earned in Spain.

In Ronaldo’s case, the former Manchester United winger is accused of having diverted some €150m of advertising revenue through a shell company in the British Virgin Islands.

Barcelona’s Neymar and Javier Mascherano, as well as former Madrid defender Ricardo Carvalho, have all found themselves under investigation in recent months.