State Tax An Issue For NY Athletes?

Come on. Melo could probably make well over 500 mil in NY. Is he really going to make his decision based off of state income tax? LeBron went to Miami so he could play with his friends. I don’t think it had anything to do the lack of a state income tax in Miami. These guys are making an unlimited amount of money. I have a hard time believing that any athlete would lose money by playing in NY. Thats ridiculous.

I have heard that athletes get taxed for the money they earn from different states. So if Melo is on the nuggets and plays the knicks he gets taxed or something.

Don’t know is this is necessarily true though.

If he plays a road game in NY that is

Athletes who play in NY don’t HAVE to live in NY..It’s my understanding than a good number of them live in Jersey or Connecticut. Also you have to be living in the state for a certain amount of time for them to make you pay tax. Is they dont live in NY in the off-season, they might not be eligible.

1) Establish residency in a state with no income tax
2) Spend more days in that state than any other
3) Pay no income tax

3) Pay no STATE income tax

YEs.. you owe taxes for the days in state for each state.

that was a big factor in both LBJ’s and bosh’s case. It was why they could take less money.

Think of it. the difference betwween NYC and NYS income tax and florida income tax is close to 10% I think. so what is the difference between 16.6 Mil and 14.5 Mil? not far from 10%. right.

by the way Canada taxes are even worse because of their VAT.

To quote Proximo in Gladiator.

“So finally after 5 years of scratching a living in flea infested villages we are finally going back to where we belong, the Colosseum. Oh you should see the Colosseum, Spaniard. 50,000 Romans watching every movement of your sword, willing you to make that killer blow. The silence before you strike, and the noise afterwards, it rises, rises like…like a storm, as if you were the Thunder God himself.”

You either want to play in the Garden or you don’t. If you don’t go play in some flea infested area in South Beach or Houston.

i think it is an advantage. how much i don’t know but states like florida and arizona do well in creating jobs since they can offer less in salary to employees while it still evens out for the employee in net income. large companies r increasingly looking to set up shop in these states.

Everyones says how much the Miami Lice sacrificed in money but I’m not sure how much “sacrifice” really ocurred after you take into account what they are saving without having to pay state taxes. Chris Bosh is proabably doing even better going from Canada’s insane tax rate to Florida’s low taxes.

Have you ever been to South Beach? There is an Eva Mendez and Rosario Dawson eveywhere you look. You even find the elusive rare fast food hotties working the drive thru at McDonalds.

If you’re a 25 year old male with a lot of money who wants to have fun with his friends there is no better place to live than Miami. If you want to transcend your sport, become a legend in your own time and lead a team to a championship for a city with die hard fans there is no better place than NY.

He chose the beautiful beaches, friends and hot girls. Miami is a horrible sports city with undeserving, bandwagon fans but it’s far from flea ridden.

yeah, it aint flea-ridden. but the gladiator quote is hilarious.. lol
some arenas are more equal than others..

tax issue? No… After Carmelo found out Jerome “the beast” Jordan went overseas, he decided he didnt want to be a Knick anymore.

Im hearing Carmelo is also dying to play with Earl Barron.

It’s almost a built in salary cap exception for teams like the magic and heat when you really think about it.

“Well [insert star free agent], if you take a this much less less on your salary you will still make the same amount as if you took [team with state tax]‘s offer after taxes are taken out. Then we can bring in better players than [team with state tax] since we still have more money to play with under the cap.”

NY or any other team with state taxes could not have pulled off 3 max free agents agreeing to take less on their contracts because even though it would be the same amount on the contract, it’s not the same amount on the paycheck.

That’s why I never buy into a player coming to play here for a discount. Raise some championship banners then maybe, but until then players are looking for the max.

Don’t forget, players get taxed on their endorsement money here too.

The silence as Melo pulls up from the elbow for a game winner and the noise afterwards will be insane. It’s there for him if he wants it. LBJ passed on it. I don’t hate him for it, but there is only 1 garden.

lol classic quote.

But I agree with the 2 responses that Miami is far from flea-infested lol.

I live in FL and as a single guy with no dependents making a nice (not great…lol) amount of money i prolly only lose 25% of my check to taxes and that includes my medical/dental/eye insurances because i’d need my paystub to figure all that out exactly.

So you keep at least 75% of your check as a middle class person with being the type of person who doesn’t get any tax breaks (kids, wife). I know the richer you are they take more tax out but when you’re really talking about keeping an extra $100,000 to $150,000 for each million you make if

—it really adds up.

http://www.knicksfan.net/?p=4125

Houston is not the size of NYC (not even a quarter of the size) but it is the 4th biggest city in America (6th including metropolitan ares). Paltry is not a word I would use to describe it

But Houston is a dump.

doesn’t LBJ have kids and isn’t he practically married to this same girl for years? so is he really going to south beach because of hot girls! Humm….what do you know, maybe he is looking for a harem.

Brooklyn’s the 4th biggest city.

“Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in.” – Avett Brothers

“Have you ever been to South Beach? There is an Eva Mendez and Rosario Dawson eveywhere you look. You even find the elusive rare fast food hotties working the drive thru at McDonalds.”

This is absolutely true, but you can see some breath taking hott ones in NY on any given day. Lets stop talking about Florida like its California lol, its not on that level.

Cmon now fellas you know the Melo Man wants to play in the Garden. Trust your gut. Actually getting him here, well thats a different story all together.

The longer this this whole thing draws out the more it enhances our chances. I hate to think Melo made this much of a fuss, only to end up at place not much better than his current situation.

Preach on bloop. Preach on.

Not an issue for players who’s off the court income dwarfs their on the court income.

small blackboards makes good shooters @ see link of gallo fb

Ya know, good accountants can keep millionaires from paying anything much at all.

No, the word is: dump.

If Carmelo comes here, it will be because of his desire to be closer to his family and friends on the east coast, and his wife’s desire to move her career along. The Garden is great, but ask any player from a small market who has won a championship would they trade (or have traded) their ring for a chance to play at the garden, and I doubt any would say yes. Many who played at the Garden may say they wouldn’t trade the experience for a championship, but for them playing at the Garden was their championship. Aside from Ewing and King (and maybe Mark Jackson), who from the Knicks in the last 30 years has had a HOF career? We are using supporting players’ love of the Garden to explain why stars would want to play here. Playing at the Garden may be the end all be all for a supporting player, but a star level player wants a championship, and he doesn’t care where he gets it. Frazier is my hero, but I guarantee you that if he had to choose between a career in NY without two championships and some place else with them, he’d choose the rings.

Money first, championship second, legacy third. Star players are going to go with what they can get for showing up first, money. The are going for what they can work for second, championships. They are going for what is a matter of time+place+luck third, legacy. A career can end on a freak play. Gale Sayers was probably the greatest running back of all time, but he’s rarely in the conversation. Relative to height, Barkley could be in the discussion for greatest of all time, but he never had a dominant side-kick. Best example, B. King never got to play in his prime with Ewing… if he did, his legacy would exist outside of NY. These young players know they are products, and the only thing a product guarantees is money.

Oh, and I’m glad the state tax thing makes sense now. It made sense to me when I said it a few months ago. I’m just sayin’…

Derek Jeter swings deal with N.Y. state on unpaid taxes

BY Joe Mahoney In Albany and Douglas Feiden In New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Monday, February 4th 2008, 11:49 PM

ALBANY – Derek Jeter has romanced Mariah Carey, squired Jessica Biel, sweet-talked Scarlett Johansson – and now he’s made it to first base with the state taxman.

The 6-foot-3 Yankee captain cut a secret deal with the Department of Taxation to end a probe into whether he paid enough income taxes, the Daily News has learned.

Government bean-counters last year mulled a civil case against the shortstop because he claimed his legal home was in Florida – even as he basked in splendor in a $13 million bachelor’s pad on the 88th floor of Trump World Tower.

Tax investigators, without charging criminal intent, questioned in November if Jeter had dodged city and state taxes and interest from 2001 to 2003 by improperly declaring Tampa his primary residence.

The multimillionaire-friendly Sunshine State has no income tax – and it’s long lured overtaxed Empire Staters who have often branded their winter homes legal residences for tax purposes.

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/02/05/2008-02-05_derek_jeter_swings_deal_with_ny_state_on-2.html#ixzz0xgQHZIiU

a countryside minded person think mia is a good place to live,mia isn’t even a good vacation that ish is superoverrated,never been into swimming in fish sh8t so u know.

i had sex once with Eva Mendez

that tape been leaked BoB

if mela really wants to be close to family an friend i think the Wiz would be the destination

Houston is far from a dump. Especially for a young millionaire.

New Yorkers can be so pretentious.

New Yorkers, myself included, are kind of taught from an early age that NY is the best place in the world and every other place sucks. Which isn’t true.

But Houston, well, I mean…. I guess it’s just a matter of personal preference. If I was making millions of dollars I wouldn’t go live in a place based on whether or not I pay state taxes or not. But some of them might be stupid that way.

Everyone knows it’s more expensive to live in NY. It’s also more expensive to live in a mansion. 99% of these guys dish out huge dollars for cribs and cars and I don’t see why it would make much of a difference.

I find that half the time when people bring this up they don’t even know what they are talking about, I doubt it is any better with the players. Most americans don’t even know how to file their own tax return…

There is alot of misinformation going around this comment section on how income taxes work. First off, it doesnt matter where you live, its all about where you work for the most part.

Professional athletes have to pay taxes to the state where the income is earned, meaning where each game is played. Professional athletes each year are subject to taxes in many states. So just because LBJ lives and plays in Miami now, that only really effects his home games. His road games, would be subject to each states taxes, just the same as if he were playing for the Knicks or Chicago or whoever.

That being said, do the math and you see that at the end of the day, the difference in $$$$ due to state taxes is very minor and I would think meaningless to these guys considering the overall value of thier contracts.

Say a guy makes something like the top players make, $18M a year or so. So lets first cut that in half, since as I said, this only applies to home games, as road games are taxed at the road states level. So $9M x 8%, which I think is around the max NY state tax bracket. Thats $720K in state taxes, Which is a decent amount but not all that much. But then dont forget on top of that, whatever you pay in state taxes can then be deducted from your federal return. Upper brackets for Fed texes is around 38% or so. So from that $720K dedeuction for state taxes, it would net a savings of roughly $275K in federal taxes.

This is a rough calculation of course, but the idea is that after all is said and done, this state tax thing proabbly only costs a player maybe 400K a year, on his basketball earnings. And when you are talking 5-6 100M+ contracts, I dont think its enough to really sway these guys decisions too much.

sure it was not Evan Mendez?