New Rocket Toney Douglas was in the 1560 studio this morning

It's pretty obvious that a guy making 750K a year saving 15-20% of his salary is going to feel that savings a hell of a lot more than a guy making 20 million.

The more a guy makes, both in salary and endorsements, the less our "cost of living" advantage means.

 

He seems like a real nice kid.

Might be an underrated addition to this team.

He would be a menace on defense and not have to worry about facilitating the offense if Royce is on the floor with him.

 

What I am trying to get at is that they live completely different lifestyles. Let's say that an NBA player is getting paid 1 million dollars. To the regular person they would be like I am set for life. To some NBA players that is nothing. I know Wade for example has a chef, a nutritionist, a stylist all sorts of things. They live expensive lifestyles and I am sure that there are a few NBA guys that worry about income just as much as a regular fan.

 

/shrug
after 21 does it really matter?

 

a lot of times they come from poor backgrounds and have to support their entire extended family as well. then u have your boys and chicks to hook up too.

 

2000k= 2,000,000

 

You probably have a point. I do remember that they have to file a different tax return for every state they play in. I dont remember though how salaray paid during the offseason gets taxed. I think it is in their state of residence, which is why Houston plays home away from home during the summer to so many hoops players. That said, even if you half it it still goes a long long way.

 

One big issue which reduces the impact of the tax free advantage of states like Texas and Florida is that the player's agent gets his cut off of the top line contract amount (revenue) rather than the players net after taxes. Thus, the agents who are advising the player and controlling the information flow are not going to great lengths I imagine to educate their clients about it.

 

With his ability to defend the perimeter, I can see him being a match with White with the second unit. It is going to be interesting to see what we come up with in terms of rotations this season.

Thanks for posting the interview. That was better than most. Granato starting off with how much he must hate Lin, cant get away from him made me choke on some water. John knows how to break the ice. Good stuff.

 

you only save about half of that, because of how their taxes are structured (if you play the knicks in new york, you've actually earned that money in new york and have to pay tax on that part of your salary there, its sort of ridiculous but they have to file returns with every city/state they play in basically)

 

they don't get paid during the off season, at least not by the team, any sort of sponsorship deal goes home for the most part though.

 

I do not if this is still the way its done, but back in the 1980s and 1990s, I had some work related to this field. My case involved hockey players, but my impression was that it would apply to all pro athletes. Each state or taxing authority that had an income tax where the games were played treated the income related to that game to have been "earned" in that state. Which required them to declare that income and file a return. Players had to divide up their income on a per game basis for all road games and file, even if the player only played one game there.

The case I had involved the agent/advisor for a bunch of hockey players. He came up with a scheme for them to boost their deductions for those road games -- to try and minimize all the difference income taxes paid to all those different tax entities. It was disallowed as he was way too aggressive. A lot of pro hockey players got screwed due to this bad advice, were angry and looking for him. The "advisor" had so many claims filed against him over all this, that he had to file bankruptcy. It was big mess.

I never had a similar case for basketball, baseball or football but feel certain the same rules apply to them. Basically, if you get a form showing income (i.e., a W-2) then you have to file a return there. And, since all these jurisdictions are constantly looking for more money, there is no way there were going to let pro athletes off the hook.

By my count, there are 21 states that have NBA teams + DC + Toronto (I dropped New Jersey). Of these 23, only Texas and Florida do not have a state income. And, some cities, like New York will get you again (although NYC does not require a separate form -- it is collected on the state form). It also makes me wonder about a game played in London or Tokyo. Maybe they arrange special waivers for the players? If not, then this would take this suck to an even newer level of suckage.

Any way you slice it, that is a lot of returns. No fun task. So when you hear a player complain about the fees he pays to his CPA or tax guy, this is why.

Finally, to sum it up, Toney Douglas will get a tax break for moving from NY to Houston. But, I do not think is not the full amount that is assumed above (there was an article in the Washington Examiner that I read about this too). I think that whoever ran the numbers was assuming 100% of income would be treated as earned as a Texas resident, which I believe is incorrect. He will get a tax break. But it will come only on half his income -- the amount represented by home games (this is not accounting for any playoff games ). Still, this is no small sum.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who currently is in this field (I am not) and can provide better info.

 

I agree that I overstated the deduction, but I think yours is off too. There are about 8 months in the NBA season, so they earn 8/12th of their salary during the season, during which 50% would be tax free due to home games in Texas. The other 4 months are taxes at the rate of their off season residence state.