The 2026 FIFA World Cup is underway across North America, with matches being held in 16 cities spread across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
This marks only the second time in history that the World Cup has been hosted across multiple countries, following Japan and South Korea’s joint tournament in 2002.
The multi-nation format creates a uniquely complex tax situation for teams, players, and support staff travelling between three separate jurisdictions throughout the competition.
Ordinarily, athletes competing in a foreign country would be liable for income taxes in that country on earnings generated while present there.
Had the United States hosted the tournament alone, as it did in 1994, each participating nation’s players and staff would have faced US income tax obligations on their World Cup earnings.
With three host nations involved, the risk of double or even triple taxation on the same income became a serious concern for tournament participants and their advisers.
To address the problem, the tax authorities of all three countries, including the US Internal Revenue Service, Canada’s Revenue Agency, and Mexico’s SAT, reached a consensus on a shared allocation method.
Under the agreed framework, total compensation paid by FIFA to a participating country is allocated proportionally based on the number of games played in each host country relative to the team’s total matches in the tournament.
In practical terms, the formula works as follows: taxable income allocated to a given country equals total FIFA earnings multiplied by the number of matches played in that country, divided by the total number of matches played by the team.
The three agencies also agreed that the same proportional allocation method could reasonably apply to downstream payments made from a participating team to its individual players or staff members.
This cross-border coordination represents a pragmatic effort to reduce administrative burden on teams and athletes who might otherwise need to file complex returns across three separate national tax systems simultaneously.
The agreement does not eliminate all tax issues that World Cup participants may face, and complexities will remain for some individuals depending on their personal circumstances and home country tax obligations.
Nevertheless, the joint position from three major tax authorities provides a clear and consistent framework that should significantly reduce uncertainty for FIFA, national football associations, players, and their advisers throughout the tournament.
With the majority of matches scheduled to take place in the United States, American tax rules will likely account for the largest share of allocated income for most teams that advance deep into the competition.