The career of an artist or professional athlete rarely stays within one country. Tours, international competitions, endorsements, streaming, royalties and image rights often generate income in several jurisdictions at once – and with that comes complex, high-stakes tax exposure. Without specialised support, you risk double taxation, unexpected withholding tax, disputes with foreign tax authorities, and legal challenges around “service companies” or image rights structures.
A fiscal representative for artists and athletes acts as your local tax partner, handling your obligations in the relevant country, speaking directly with the tax authorities, and ensuring your income is structured and declared correctly. The goal is simple: protect your earnings, your reputation and your peace of mind, so you can focus on performance rather than paperwork.
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Common Situations Where a Fiscal Representative Is Needed
Artists and athletes frequently work across borders, often without a permanent establishment in the countries where they perform. In many of these situations, appointing a fiscal representative becomes mandatory or strongly advisable to avoid tax exposure and administrative complications.
This applies, for example, to concert tours, shows, festivals, and live performances where ticket sales or appearance fees create local tax obligations. It also concerns athletes participating in tournaments, leagues, competitions or exhibition matches abroad, as well as clubs or promoters paying them directly.
Endorsements, sponsorship deals, image rights agreements and royalties often trigger taxable events in multiple countries, making proper structuring and local compliance essential. The same is true for production work – film shoots, recording sessions, audiovisual performances – where the place of performance determines the tax treatment.
Whenever income is earned in a foreign jurisdiction, a fiscal representative ensures the correct withholding tax is applied, the proper declarations are filed, and no double taxation risk arises – allowing artists and athletes to focus fully on their craft, not on complex international tax rules.
How a Fiscal Representative Protects You
A fiscal representative plays a central role in safeguarding the financial and legal interests of artists and athletes working internationally. Their first mission is to ensure that every income stream – whether it comes from performances, competitions, sponsorships, royalties or image rights – receives the correct tax treatment in each country where it is earned. This prevents costly errors such as excessive withholding, unexpected local tax liabilities, or double taxation.
They also secure your documentation and invoicing, making sure that contracts, payments and supporting records comply with local requirements. This is essential when dealing with event organisers, clubs, promoters or production companies, who often rely on precise tax information to process payments correctly. Proper compliance at this stage protects your reputation and avoids administrative delays.
A fiscal representative becomes your direct intermediary with foreign tax authorities, handling communication, responding to questions, and managing reviews or audits on your behalf. This greatly reduces stress and ensures that potential disputes are resolved quickly and professionally.
Perhaps most importantly, your representative helps anticipate issues before they arise. By reviewing your contracts, travel schedule, corporate structures and residency implications, they ensure that your international activity is organised in a secure, compliant and tax-efficient way. With this protection in place, artists and athletes can focus entirely on their performance while knowing that their tax affairs are handled with precision and discretion.
Our Services for Artists and Athletes
We offer a comprehensive range of tax and compliance services designed specifically for internationally active artists and athletes. Our work begins with a detailed assessment of your income streams, performance schedule, contractual arrangements and potential tax exposure in each country where you operate. This allows us to build a tailored strategy that protects your earnings and ensures full compliance with local and international tax rules.
We handle all tax and VAT representation requirements, including local registrations, withholding tax management, and the preparation and filing of tax returns. Whether your income comes from performances, competitions, sponsorships, merchandising, royalties or image rights, we ensure that every payment is declared correctly and benefits from any applicable treaty relief.
Our team also supports you with contract-related matters. Before you sign with a promoter, club, festival, production company or sponsor, we review the tax implications and help secure a structure that avoids unnecessary taxation or administrative hurdles.
For artists and athletes using companies – whether for image rights, production work, or service-based structures – we ensure that these entities comply with the relevant tax rules and do not create exposure under anti-avoidance provisions.
In the event of a tax audit, reassessment or dispute, we represent you directly before the tax authorities, prepare the required documentation, and defend your position with the necessary technical expertise. We also manage withholding tax reclaims and treaty applications to recover excess tax paid abroad.
Our service is designed to be discreet, efficient and fully adapted to the realities of high-visibility careers, allowing you to focus on your professional goals while we handle the complexity behind the scenes.
What Is a Fiscal Representative for Artists and Athletes?
A fiscal representative is a locally established tax professional who acts on behalf of an artist, athlete, or their company when they earn income in a foreign country. Because many jurisdictions require a local representative for non-resident performers, this role ensures full compliance with local tax laws while simplifying every administrative step.
In practice, your fiscal representative handles tax registrations, prepares and files returns, manages withholding tax obligations, ensures proper invoicing, and communicates directly with the tax authorities. They analyse each performance, match, endorsement or contract to determine how it should be taxed, and secure any available treaty benefits to reduce or eliminate double taxation.
Unlike a manager or agent focused on career development, the fiscal representative is responsible for the legal and tax accuracy of your international income. Their mission is to protect you from unexpected liabilities, ensure you remain compliant in every country where you perform, and provide a secure framework for your global career.
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