FIFA paid zero tax: Spain could lose $15 million – The IRS’s World Cup cash grab is the perfect final insult

Spain lifted the World Cup trophy on July 19. They beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time in front of 82,000 people at MetLife Stadium. Ferran Torres scored. Lamine Yamal cried.

Rodri lifted the trophy. And within 24 hours, the United States Internal Revenue Service had done the maths and identified roughly $15 million it would like back from the winners.

Welcome to the World Cup 2026’s final controversy and arguably its most revealing one.

The IRS rule that previous World Cups never applied: with Spain potentially losing millions

Under US tax law, nonresident foreign athletes earning income on American soil are subject to a 30% federal withholding rate unless a tax treaty or specific exemption reduces the figure. Some estimates peg Spain’s total potential tax liability as high as $43.75 million.

This would be leaving the Spanish federation with just $6.25 million from a $50 million check, depending on how many of their matches were played on US soil versus in Canada and Mexico. Players face the same exposure at an individual level.

“At the individual player level, there is no exemption.” Mina Capouet, a senior legal analyst at Wolters Kluwer, told Accounting Today. Once Spain distributes prize money for matches played in USA, those payments count as US income and the IRS withholds 30% off the top.

And then New Jersey, where the final was played, adds its own state income tax of up to 10.75% on top. South Africa, Brazil, Russia and Qatar all granted full tax relief covering FIFA and the teams involved in their respective tournaments.

Oddly enough,Trump’s administration negotiated FIFA’s own tax-exempt status under Section 501(c) of the US tax code. This means FIFA itself paid zero tax on the $871 million prize pool it generated and distributed. FIFA keeps its money. Everyone else faces the IRS.

The contradiction nobody in the Trump administration can explain

Republican Congressman Tim Burchett called the situation “a rip-off.” Democratic Congressman Jonathan Jackson went further: “It’s wrong, and that kind of highlights something bigger.”

The something bigger is this: the same administration that reversed Folarin Balogun’s red card via a White House phone call, that booed its own invited guests at the trophy ceremony, that took credit for the World Cup’s commercial success while pricing out fans through visa bonds: that administration negotiated an arrangement in which FIFA.

Yes, the the most politically compromised governing body in world sport, FIFA, walks away tax-free while the team that won the whole thing potentially loses $15 million to $44 million depending on which lawyer you trust.

The US-Spain tax treaty exists and will almost certainly reduce the final bill significantly. But the principle stands. Previous host nations understood that extracting a tax cut from the World Cup champions’ prize money was a bad look and worse policy. This administration understood no such thing.