November 29, 2004
Jock Tax
By Bob
While reading through the Tax Foundation's Tax Watch newsletter, I ran across an article on the origins of athletes paying income tax in states where they play away games. As one could imagine, it now affects many beyond the star athlete.
If state tax collectors have their way, we may all be “jocks” soon.That’s the finding of a new report from the Tax Foundation that explores the growth of “jock taxes”—taxes requiring visiting athletes and other team employees to file tax returns in every state where games are played.
“The jock tax began with California trying to get back at Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls for beating the Lakers in 1991,” said David Hoffman, adjunct scholar with the Tax Foundation and co-author of the new report. “Illinois fought back with a retaliatory tax the next year. Since then, many other states have joined in.”
Today, of the 24 states with pro teams, 20 have enacted jock taxes, along with a half dozen cities.
The study finds that revenue-hungry state treasuries are extending their income taxes to more and more nonresidents who just work a few days a year in their states. Jock taxes were first aimed at a tiny number of wealthy athletes, but the study shows they are now beginning to spread to salespeople, newspaper reporters, lawyers and others, forcing non-jocks to pay as well.
New Jersey has begun taxing visiting attorneys, Cincinnati has levied a tax on touring skateboarders, and several jurisdictions have begun taxing traveling entertainers.
Click here to download the PDF and scroll to page 3 for the whole thing.
Posted at November 29, 2004 05:45 PM
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://truckandbarter.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/307