Baseball is taxing

January 7, 2009 by Benjamin Kabak 36 Comments

James M. Odata at The Times-Union has whipped out his CPA calculator to figure out the Yanks’ top five earners’ tax liability. Based on the assumption that none of these guys consider New York State, for tax purposes, to be their primary residences and that the Yanks are in New York for 100 of the season’s approximately 240 days, the state alone would make $3 million from Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Derek Jeter and A-Rod. If they all permanently resided here, the state could claim up to $7 million. The city would take some, and the Feds would want a large cut too. (Hat tip to Shysterball again. Craig does good work. Read him.)

http://actyankee.blogspot.com Matt

I wonder if Jeter will pay this year.
- A.D.
  
  Jeter paid his taxes, the issue was residency, which he declared residency in the state of Florida (no income tax), which is completely legal.
  
  The state of NY looked to make the case that because of his presence & other BS that he should be considered a NY resident, basically someone figured he could get promoted & set a precedence on this… they settled on something.
Ed

Does New York not give you credit for the income tax you pay to other states? If that’s the case, that really sucks…
- A.D.
  
  its something like if you work over 10 days in a state then you have to pay taxes to that state for the salary earned during the time you were there. You pay the top tax rate (so NY state unless your home state is more).
  - Ed
    
    As you’re getting at, the way it works in most states is you are obligated to pay tax to both the state you earned the money in and the state you live in. Simplifying things a little bit here, but, most states give their residents credit for income tax paid to other states. As your comment said, the result is you end up being taxed at the higher rate.
    
    However, these arrangements are established by the individual states.
    
    So back to my original question – does New York not have those arrangements? The article is claiming that if the players lived in New York, their combined tax burden to the state would be $7 million. The only way that would be the case is if New York does not have any arrangements to credit taxes paid to other states.
    
    If that’s the case, they would be paying tax on 100% of their income to New York, plus tax on 58% of their income to other states. That would be a huge tax load.
    - A.D.
      
      NY has agreements I’m almost positive, the money gets dived up in that case I believe. My guess is for simplicity sake, they’re taking an assumption of Florida/Nevada/Delaware as the athlete’s state of residence, which has no income Tax, and therefore has no claim.
      - Ed
        
        Again… the article’s claim is that if the players claimed New York as their state of residence, NY would collect tax at NY rates on 100% of the player’s income.
        
        That only makes sense if NY doesn’t have income tax agreements with other states, and would make living in NY a really bad idea for a professional athlete.
        
        If NY does have agreements with other states, then the article’s conclusion is wrong. In that case, I’m really surprised that someone would know enough about taxes to come up with the $3m figure he tossed out but simultaneously not know that the $7m figure is wrong.
GG

F Taxes, anyway people think we could swing Beltran to make up for the mistake of years ago…I didnt know till today the Mets liked Swisher as well as the braves before we got him and they need pitching AND maybe if they unloaded that contract, they could go after Manny like their fanbase wants for the most part….Swisher and some pitching like IPK or Princess Hughes or something for Beltran…what do ppl think? what else would we need to get it done??
- A.D.
  
  Beltran will not be moved.
  - Reggie C.
    
    Mets would be foolish to give up Beltran. They got him long-term at a discount, and he’s played well. I also haven’t heard of Beltran being discontented with the org., so its not like this thing is getting pushed by insiders. The Beltran & Santana trains have left the station. Forget ’em.
  - GG
    
    I know just wishing
  - Reggie C.
    
    Did not mean to direct that to you.
  - That guy
    
    That wouldnt do it and he wont be moved.
    - GG
      
      What would?? Say you start with Swisher and Hughes?
      - A.D.
        
        Realistically nothing, the deal would have to be too ridiculous for the Mets for another team to consider it. Wright, Reyes, Beltran, and Santana pretty much won’t be moved for any reason at this point, unless they can get a king’s ransom for the player, or something very unexpected happens.
        
        Think about the Yankees trading A-Rod, Teix, Joba, or CC right now. They wouldn’t do it unless they got something obscene.
        
        Looking at it from the dump payroll sign Manny side, they want to sign Manny to add a big bat, subtracting a big bat to add one, and get worse defensively isn’t going to happen. What is hurting them is the Castillo contract, he’s making 6M a year for the next 3 years, that 6M could be helpful in whatever money they do have for Manny now.
        
        GG
        
        yeah i feel that totally/knew tha’d be ur answer, wishful thinking
  - GG
    
    If they did though, they could go after Manny, Maybe put up with Swisher in CF or maybe Martinez can play there eventually? Plus get a cheap starter from us, maybe two arms or something…FUCCCCC…..why didnt we just sign him when he wanted to be a Yank, bet he still does, can’t be too great playing for a city’s second team!
http://www.puristbleedspinstripes.com Rebecca-Optimist Prime

You know, it’s not like the City doesn’t need the money…
- http://www.puristbleedspinstripes.com Rebecca-Optimist Prime
  
  *and the state, too.
  - http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CRsmithT1.jpg tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
    
    … maybe we should invade and pillage Florida.
    - A.D.
      
      Roman style, conquer other states to we can tax the hell out of them
    - http://www.puristbleedspinstripes.com Rebecca-Optimist Prime
      
      Works for me…
    - GG
      
      Yea, people live in NY, make money here, go down to FL to spend it when they are getting older, buy homes there, shop and eat there, play golf and do other activities there, THEN when they get old and sick, they come back up for the hospitals…creates a burden, tell FL were comin in for the dough….and Hanley
      - http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CRsmithT1.jpg tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        Yup. Florida, we’re here for your bounty.
        
        We’ll take your uncollected tax revenues, Hanley Ramirez, B.J. Upton, Scott Kazmir, Dwayne Wade, Dwight Howard, South Beach, Esther Baxter, Trina, Eva Mendes, cocaine, golf, Hooters, the Super Bowl, The “U”, and Dayanara Torres.
        
        You can keep Dave Barry, Wayne Brady, Wade Boggs, Flo-Rida, T-Pain, Vanilla Ice, Mark Foley, Janet Reno, Katherine Harris, Chad Pennington, Rony Siekaly, Gloria Estefan, alligators, geriatrics, jai-alai, Key West, butterfly ballots, CSI Miami, and Don Johnson.
        
        UWS
        
        …they can keep The “U”.
        
        GG
        
        I used to love Kazmir, but I think at this point in time I would take Shields, Garza, or Price all before him
    - http://actyankee.blogspot.com Matt
      
      Nah, let’s take California. They’ve to ass-tons of money out there. If they broke off from the US, they’d have the sixth or seventh biggest economy in the world. Take ’em over and tax ’em, baby!
      
      …and steal Tim Lincecum.
      - http://www.puristbleedspinstripes.com Rebecca-Optimist Prime
        
        Could you imagine what stealing Lincecum would do to the Pettitte debate?
      - A.D.
        
        They also have some major issues, which NY state doesn’t want to take on, they may be in the wost financial situation of any state.
        
        Florida has a ton of transplanted New Yorkers… less citizen unrest, easier to squash revolts.
        
        GG
        
        Yeah FL seems to make a lot more sense, those are great reasons as is FL’s proximity in relation to CA.
        
        On the other hand, CA probablly has the most baseball talent of any state
        
        A.D.
        
        True, though FLA not to shabby on baseball talent. Create a decree banning football in the state of Florida and you could funnel even more talent into baseball.
pat

i enjoy the fact that this post has devolved into a civil debate about which state should be attacked,raped, pillaged and colonized in the name of new york.
- http://www.puristbleedspinstripes.com Rebecca-Optimist Prime
  
  You and me both.
  
  Hey, I’m a medievalist–attack and pillage are kind of my thing.
http://nyfaninboston.blogspot.com/ Manimal

So indirectly, they will pay for the new stadium.
- GG
  
  and indirectly, we’ll pay for the marlins stadium…after we take their franchise player and anyone else we deem worthy
  - 27 this year
    
    we also got to steal all the Marlins money from the owner that refuses to spend along with all the revenue sharing we would be saving. Next, area to conquer, D.C. and take over another franchise for saving money on revenue sharing.