ROMANIAN RAPID BUCHAREST ORDERED TO PAY TAX BILL

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The top-division club's failure to properly report profits made from the transfer of Florin Bratu to Turkish Superliga club Galatasaray has led to an order to pay US 400,000 in taxes, according to Reuters. The striker was transferred in 2003, with Rapid earning US 1.75 million and former Romanian captain Gheorge Popescu, acting as Bratu's agent, earning US 1 million.

"Rapid only registered US 100,000 of the US 1.75 million fee for Bratu in documents for the 2003 fiscal year," Romanian tax chief Sebastian Bodu said. "Rapid must now pay US 400,000 as fiscal taxes debt." 

The club's owner, George Copos, who is also the country's Deputy Prime Minister, has denied that the club is liable, saying that it is a non-profit organization that does not have to pay taxes. Bodu disagreed, saying: "Bratu's transfer was an economic move with a financial profit for Rapid so it must pay taxes to the state budget."

The affair originally surfaced in February when Romania's football federation (FRF) launched an investigation after local media reports that US 2 million of the transfer fee was unaccounted for. Popescu has made a late tax payment of US 400,000 on his fee and was then fined US 40,000 by the FRF. Tax authorities also told him that he could be investigated for tax evasion. Popescu stopped acting as an agent last October.