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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Billionaire Playbook: How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Millions in Taxes
Owners like Steve Ballmer can take the kinds of deductions on team assets everything from media deals to player contracts that industrialists take on factory equipment. That helps them pay lower tax rates than players and even stadium workers.
by Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Ellis Simani July 8, 5 a.m. EDT
At a concession stand at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Adelaide Avila was pingponging between pouring beers, wiping down counters and taking out the trash. Her Los Angeles Lakers were playing their hometown rival, the Clippers, but Avila was working too hard to follow the March 2019 game.
When she filed taxes for her previous years labors at the arena and her second job driving for Uber, the 50-year-old Avila reported making $44,810. The federal government took a 14.1% cut.
On the court that night, the players were also hard at work. None more so than LeBron James. The Lakers star was suffering through a painful strained groin injury, but he still put up more points and played more minutes than any other player.
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-billionaire-playbook-how-sports-owners-use-their-teams-to-avoid-millions-in-taxes
MyOwnPeace
(16,888 posts)I thought TFG was getting off easy with paying $750 a year!
ProfessorGAC
(64,427 posts)Interesting article.
No surprises, but a good read.
Mosby
(16,168 posts)As ordinary earned income. Why is that the case?
Great piece, thx for posting.
Zeitghost
(3,796 posts)Athletes are just like any other employee working for a salary. Their paychecks are just a bit bigger.
Mosby
(16,168 posts)Freelance employees are.
They meet a lot of the guidelines for freelance work.
melm00se
(4,975 posts)I have signed contracts for my job as a W-2 employee.
turbinetree
(24,632 posts)Zeitghost
(3,796 posts)There are plenty of reasons to change the corporate tax code. Depreciating assets is not one of them.
If you buy an asset for 200M and then "make" 20M your first year, you have yet to make any profit to be taxed. You can't ignore the purchase price and pretend it's not a deductible expense just because it's not a periodic expense.
Mosby
(16,168 posts)And yet the contracts are just payroll expense, but they depreciate the "value".