"Demand notices to four players including Yuvraj Singh, VRV Singh, Sunny Sohal and Uday Kaul playing for Kings XI Punjab franchise will be issued by either July end or first week of August for the payment of service tax," an official of the Central Excise Department, who is involved in investigating the IPL case, said here.
A decision to raise tax demand from cricket players follows the non-disclosure of breakup of earnings by players from IPL matches.
"These players have not declared about how much they earned from endorsements and how much they earned from playing matches even after notices were serviced to them. But now we have decided to levy tax on income, whether it is match fees, earned by players from IPL-I and II season after assessing their income on individual basis," he said.
The department has assessed service tax amounting to Rs 96.43 lakh on income of Yuvraj Singh, Rs 11.33 lakh on VRV Singh and Rs 4.53 lakh each on Sunny Sohal and Uday Kaul for first and the second IPL season.
According to the official, Yuvraj Singh claimed earning of Rs 4.25 crore while VRV Singh, Uday Kaul and Sunny Sohal got Rs 50 lakh, Rs 20 lakh and Rs 20 lakh respectively from the first season of IPL.
"For calculating the service tax, the income in the second season is considered the same as that in the first season," he informed.
In February this year, the department served notices to these players seeking details regarding total payment and the breakup indicating money received from sponsorships and earnings as match fees.
It had also demanded a copy of the agreement signed by the players with their franchise owner, total payment received from the owners, service tax registration number if obtained, details of service tax paid, copies of service tax returns if filed and complete books of accounts and balance sheet.
The department again sent reminders to these players in April and June.
However, only three players, including Yuvraj Singh, VRV Singh and Uday Kaul, replied to the central excise department notices, saying that they received only match fees, hence no service tax was applicable on their income.
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