Swedish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional player Robin “flusha” Rönnquist, who currently competes for Fnatic, was convicted by the Attunda District Court for tax offenses, according to a report from Swedish esports news platform fragbite. The esports professional failed to declare roughly kr1M SEK ($116K USD) from esports winnings in his 2015 income tax report.
In front of the court, Rönnquist admitted his wrongdoing but stated that he did not understand that his winnings had to be declared as income. While winnings from gambling at a licensed gambling business (which include card games such as Poker) are tax-free, winnings from sporting and esports events are subject to taxation.
The court sentenced Rönnquist to 120 hours of community service, a fee of kr800 ($92.90) to the Swedish Crime Victim Fund, and a tax surcharge of 40% on the missing tax that amounts to kr200K ($23.2K). He avoids imprisonment associated with tax evasion of up to five months as the court considered mitigating circumstances.
At the end of 2015, Rönnquist founded Mouselifting AB with his sister Nathalie likely to manage his esports earnings. Last year, Mouselifting reported kr2M ($232K) in revenues for the twelve months ended on Sept. 30, 2019.