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The Premier League has revealed it is in talks with the tax authorities on behalf of its clubs and players to try to protect the money they earn from sponsorship deals.

Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) believes it is missing out on up to £100m in tax because many players have established “image-rights” companies that are mainly based offshore and are therefore out of reach of tax officials.

The Financial Times reports that HMRC is concerned that instead of paying all of a player's remuneration in salary, clubs are paying some money into image-rights firms.

HMRC suspects that one of the real aims of these deals is to attract foreign-based players who are put off by British taxation levels, according to the FT.

Javed Khan, the Premier League's finance director, will discuss the issue this week with his counterparts at the league's 20 clubs.

The paper claims that one idea he wants to examine is a banding system that would place big-money earners in a top band. These players would be able to assign a higher percentage of salaries to image-rights payments than players in lower bands.

The Premier League said: "We are in discussions with HMRC. All players have some degree of image rights attached to them. It is legitimate to have some element of image rights, but HMRC would query the level that some have attached to them."

However, the FT adds that the prospect of HMRC agreeing to such an arrangement is remote. It quotes Jeff Millington of Begbies Traynor, a former HMRC manager who initiated its investigation into image rights, as saying: "The Revenue's [HMRC’s] legal opinion is robust.

“The evidence they see is quite favourable to the Revenue. When you consider the amount of tax at risk, the Revenue isn't going to do a deal."

HMRC added: "The Government remains committed to ensuring everyone pays their fair share of tax and that the minority who seek not to do so should not succeed."