Tax, wealth, asset protection and legal structuring: comprehensive support for talent and every player in the sport and creative ecosystem

Sport and the creative industries form part of an ecosystem in which, at every stage of performance and creation, there are stakeholders with specific legal, tax and asset management considerations. Coffra Group supports all these stakeholders, whatever their role in the value chain of performance and creation.

Performance creators

Professional athletes, artists, influencers and content creators are behind the performance or the creation itself. Their situation is characterised in particular by the diversity of their income sources — linked, on the one hand, to their performance or creative activity and, on the other, to the exploitation of their image — an increasingly international and digital dimension, and membership of a hybrid ecosystem involving multiple intermediaries. The challenge: to make the most of the present and secure the future, by creating and protecting their assets while generating, managing and optimising their income.

Talent managers

Clubs, managers, agents and producers contribute to the development of talents’ careers. The relationships between these intermediaries necessarily require appropriate governance in order to strike a balance between the various interests at stake — an exercise made more complex by the international and digital dimension.

Broadcasters of talent and performance

Stadiums, sports centres, museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets and platforms (TV, radio, press, streaming, social media), among others, enable performances to take place and reach the wider public. They face audience fragmentation and a multiplicity of distribution channels, significant costs — rights, production, technology — whose profitability must be secured, an international dimension requiring country-by-country rights management, and a direct dependence on the image and performance of the talent they broadcast.

Financers of talent and performance

Sponsors, patrons, foundations, associations, investors and commercial partners fund sporting or creative endeavours and their promotion. Their return on investment remains uncertain, in a context of increasing competition from platforms and social media for talent monetisation, significant costs to bear, and a strong dependence on the performance, image and reputation of the talent being funded — over careers that are often short, uncertain in outcome, and subject to a constant obligation of results.

These different categories of players face common challenges: irregular and diverse income, uncertainty over career success and longevity, a multiplicity of players, high media exposure, a lack of information and forward planning, limited awareness of legal, regulatory and contractual commitments and obligations, and heightened litigation risk. It is precisely to address these challenges that Coffra group has built its multidisciplinary positioning.

A professional athlete receives income from very varied sources — club salary, performance bonuses, image rights, sponsorship, income from competitions abroad. An artist may be paid through fees, royalties, streaming royalties or advertising income, and their heirs may receive income from their works after their death. In every case, the career and performance window is limited in time, income is varied and tends to be concentrated over just a few years, and tax obligations extend across several countries.

Influencers and content creators face comparable challenges: income from brand partnerships, advertising monetisation on platforms (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch), sales of merchandise or licences, often received from several countries and several platforms at once. The line between personal image, commercial brand and editorial activity is particularly blurred, which calls for rigorous legal and tax structuring.

All players in the sport, art and influencer ecosystems are also subject to obligations imposed by legal and regulatory provisions, non-compliance with which can have consequences, particularly of a financial nature.

These specific features call for a range of disciplines, each carried out by experts with particular know-how in their field of specialism: national and international tax, company law, intellectual property law, digital law, accountancy, social security, wealth management and succession planning. This is precisely Coffra group’s positioning.

Coffra group’s detailed offering is available to any player with a role in the world of sport, the creative industries and influencer marketing. Coffra group’s offering adapts to each of these players and can be tailored to give them the benefit of multidisciplinary expertise, mobilised for any issue relating to structuring, contracting and risk management.

Our support is organised around the life cycle of a sporting, creative or influencer career: from the initial structuring of a career through to the transfer of wealth.

Coffra group is a Franco-German multidisciplinary firm (law, tax, audit, accountancy, M&A), B Corp certified and a member of the international Moore Global network. Its unique positioning allows it to mobilise and bring together complementary areas of expertise.

A multidisciplinary firm
Lawyers, chartered accountants, statutory auditors: all the expertise needed for the comprehensive management of an athlete, artist, influencer or content creator is available in-house.

A Franco-German and international dimension

With offices in Paris, Strasbourg and Nice, and a strong presence within the Moore Global network, Coffra group regularly handles cross-border tax situations and international mobility.

A commitment to B Corp

Coffra group’s B Corp certification reflects a commitment to responsible business practice, in line with the values of many committed athletes, artists, influencers and content creators.

Support designed for the whole ecosystem

• Quality of service: a network of skilled, experienced experts with proven know-how.
• Proximity: a single point of contact for all the strategic advice a talent — or one of the players around them — needs throughout their career, including internationally thanks to a network of partners that can be mobilised.
• Responsiveness: effective coordination between the various advisers and partners.
• Longevity: adaptive support that follows the development of talents’ and their partners’ careers over time.