THE SIDELINES : British Launch Track Star Tax Probe

Appearance fees and other payments to track and field stars are being investigated by Britain’s income-tax office, sports officials said today.

The British Amateur Athletics Board and the Amateur Athletic Assn. said they are giving full cooperation to the Inland Revenue Service’s special inquiry team, which wants to know if athletes have filed correct earnings on their tax returns.

Tax officials were alarmed when Steve Ovett said last month that he had been offered thousands of dollars to run in the national championships, an event where appearance money is not usually available. Ovett’s statements indicated that there may be an illegal payment system at work, in which athletes receive under-the-table money that is not put into their trust funds and, therefore, not declared for tax.

“They made no bones about the fact that it was what they read in the papers which sparked their interest,” John Lister, the association’s treasurer, said.