Key facts
- Football players and clubs will pay an extra £45 million a year in tax from the image rights change, according to the report.
- HMRC's draft guidance says clubs that negotiate or facilitate players' brand deals could face employment tax liabilities on image rights payments.
- The government delayed the rollout to April 2028 after the Premier League warned the proposal would have significantly disrupted established player and commercial contracts.
- HMRC said the rules aim to remove uncertainty about the tax treatment of image rights payments.
Football players and clubs will pay an extra £45 million a year in tax following changes to image rights announced in the UK Budget, according to the report.
HMRC published draft guidance on November 6, 2026, saying football clubs that negotiate or facilitate their players' brand deals could face employment tax liabilities on those image rights payments. The guidance follows a one-year delay of the new rules, which the government announced in last week's UK budget after the Premier League warned the proposal would have significantly disrupted established player and commercial contracts.
The move, first announced last year, is aimed at removing uncertainty about the tax treatment of image rights payments. The government decided to delay its rollout to April 2028 to give employers time to prepare, according to the Bloomberg Tax report.