Famous footballer and manager ‘Big Jack’ Charlton’s family is facing an unexplained inheritance tax of €233,000 just to keep his 1966 World Cup medal
(Image: Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Late footballer and manager Jack Charlton‘s family is being charged a £200,000 (€233,000) inheritance tax bill in order to keep his 1966 World Cup medal.
With the help of Daily Mirror journalist Jeremy Armstrong, the family contacted the government to see where the figure was coming from.
“So he spoke to the government, and they basically said it was nothing to do with them. He then spoke to the tax department, and they said it was nothing to do with them,” Charlton’s son, John, told RTÉ‘s Morning Ireland.
All they found out was that, should John Charlton pay that sum, then his child and all subsequent descendants would have to pay the same amount simply to keep holding onto the medal.
“Five generations down the line would mean that we would have to pay the tax man about a million pounds.”
(Image: Getty Images)
John, however, expressed his confusion given that he had no intention of selling the medal, even if his father’s former club Leeds United were to offer to buy it.
“If the tax department and the government were to say ‘look, if you sell the medal, then you’ve got to pay tax on it,’ not a problem, because I’m profiteering from the sale of that medal.”
“But me just to take possession of it and for £200,000 to be paid on my mother’s estate is something that I think is totally unreasonable, and everybody that’s heard about it, knows about it, totally agrees.”
A tribute flag for Jack Charlton: Eamon Dunphy believes Ireland should play the Big Jack way.(Image: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane)
Figures for the inheritance tax prices of Chartlon’s former 1966 teammates’ medals — including household names like Alan Ball, Nobby Stiles, and Gordon Banks — range between £100,000 to £200,000.
Jack Charlton was a player in the 1966 World Cup, playing for England in their 4-2 triumph over West Germany, the only tournament that saw England’s first and currently only win. He received Irish citizenship in 1996 and died six years ago last month at 85.
With the inheritance tax issue still unresolved, the family expresses that they are “just trying to get some common sense out of the government or out of the tax department, whichever one.”
“Somebody said something that I thought was quite funny today—when the Queen died in England, did Prince Charles pay for the crown jewels?”
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