Usain Bolt and other overseas athletes will be able to compete tax-free in this year's London Diamond League event at the Olympic Stadium after the chancellor agreed to a "one-off" exemption.
Bolt, who won three golds at last year's London Games, had not previously raced in the UK since 2009 because of tax rules that would have left him out of pocket.
George Osborne told the Daily Telegraph: "The government is determined to do everything possible to secure the Olympic legacy and I am delighted to grant this exemption."
The London meeting, switched from its traditional Crystal Palace home to the Olympic Stadium to mark the first anniversary of the Games on 27 July, is expected to be an 80,000 sellout and would have been damaged by the absence of athletes such as Bolt.
Tax rules mean that visiting overseas athletes would have paid tax on their earnings from the meeting but also on part of their global income including sponsorship deals.
Despite Osborne's intervention, Bolt has yet to confirm his attendance. His agent Ricky Simms said: "I think it's about two weeks before the world championships [in Moscow], which is quite late, but it's London and it's the Olympic Stadium again so it obviously has an attraction."
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