Because many players ply an international trade they don't care about local tax laws so they negotiate a net salary. It's up to club to calculate the total gross salary and work out if it's affordable for them or not.I am not following anyone of you guys tbh. But it might be that I am not familiar with UK tax law. When you are discussing net and gross income/salaries its the income tax you are referring to, right? Because that is at least how I have been taught to use those terms.
Is there not an applicable pay roll tax in the UK as well? In Sweden thats 31.42 percent, even if I know we are in the extreme.
In Sweden and most European contries it would be something like this;
Gross salary 200k
Net salary (after income tax): 120k (depending on the size of the income tax)
Total cost for the club: 200k * 1,3142 (using Swedish pay roll tax) = 262,84k per week total cost for the club.
Sometimes players are paid in a foreign currency as well, like players playing in Qatar etc. often have their contracts negotiated in net US dollar terms, so they don't have to worry about shifting exchange rates.