Returning Jeter’s Big Hit: No Good Deed Goes Untaxed (Perhaps)

Parent Cafe
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<p>"For Christian Lopez, the 23-year-old fan who came up with Jeter’s 3,000th hit at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, the ramifications of his gift from above are as American as baseball, hot dogs and taxes …</p>

<p>… The tickets [that the Yankees gave Lopez] to the 32 remaining home games (after Sunday) have a combined face value of $44,800 to $73,600, according to the team’s Web site. The tickets could be worth a lot more if the Yankees play deep into October. Steven Bandini, a tax partner at the accounting firm Zapken & Loeb, said that if the items were valued modestly at $50,000, they would probably carry a tax burden of about $14,000 …"</p>

<p>Lopez is alleged to have $100,000 in college loan debt. Maybe he would have been better off letting the ball hit him in the head and then suing the Yanks or Jeter.</p>

<p>No good deed, indeed.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/nyregion/fan-may-owe-taxes-for-claiming-jeters-3000th-hit.html?_r=2[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/nyregion/fan-may-owe-taxes-for-claiming-jeters-3000th-hit.html?_r=2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>This really isn’t so surprising. Its no different than going on a game show and winning a big prize. </p>

<p>It would be gracious of the Yankees to gross-up the gifts with enough cash to cover the taxes. Its not that uncommon.</p>

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<p>I’m sure he could sell enough of the tickets to pay the tax. Or he could turn down the gift.</p>

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<p>I am sure with the controversy, someone will cough up enough cash to cover the taxes. heck, he might get a great job offer out of this…</p>

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<p>Well, he can probably sell some of the memorabilia and make up the tax bill without a problem…and pay off his student loans.</p>

<p>Fact is, he could have kept the ball and sold it for a lot more than the stuff the Yankees and Jeter gave him.</p>

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<p>Paying taxes on it seems connected to whether or not the season tickets and memorabilia he was given are considered gifts or prizes. You pay tax on prizes but not gifts. I would have thought it was a gift, not a prize because the man gave Jeter the ball (which is worth LOTS) and in return the Yankees gave him a gift. They appear to have exchanged gifts in a way. I mean the guy did give the Yankees/Jeter something. He didn’t just win a prize. The man who caught the ball gave the Yankees/Jeter something of value in return.</p>

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<p>Surely he’ll get enough media attention with perhaps offers for commercials or something, to offset any possible cost. BTW, what ever happened to that homeless radio announcer, after he went back to rehab?</p>

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<p>He’s been back to rehab a couple of times, Jym. Doesn’t seem to be sticking.</p>

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<p>Lots of chatter on local sports talk radio about $20-million-per-year Jeter bailing on the all-star game, claiming mental and physical fatigue. It didn’t help his cause that the same day as the all-star game, Pres. Obama gave the medal of honor to an Army ranger who was shot in both legs, grabbed a hand grenade that was thrown at him and his comrades and threw it back at the enemy, the grenade blew his hand off, he tied off his arm with a tourniquet, and continued fighting. All for a lot less than $20 million.</p>

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<p>My husband thinks that Jeter should have done something more substantial for the guy.</p>

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<p>Wow- impressive story about the Army Ranger. That is what they are trained to do. He was probably humble and said he was just doing his job.</p>

<p>Sad about the radio announcer too. Addiction is an unkind disease.</p>

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<p>It didn’t help his cause that the same day as the all-star game, Pres. Obama gave the medal of honor to an Army ranger who was shot in both legs, grabbed a hand grenade that was thrown at him and his comrades and threw it back at the enemy, the grenade blew his hand off, he tied off his arm with a tourniquet, and continued fighting. All for a lot less than $20 million.</p>

<p>I read that- he has been deployed 8 times and is stationed at Ft Lewis.</p>

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<p>I’m not sure why the guy was applauded for giving the ball to Jeter. Why shouldn’t he have kept it to sell? I just don’t get why it’s sportsmanship for a guy with $100K of student debt give the ball to a professional athlete making millions of dollars per year. If he wanted to be a nice guy, he could have given Jeter a discount or something.</p>

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<p>Jeter needs to use his “edge” (I hate those commercials) and cough up the taxes as well as the remaining student loan debt for this guy…</p>

<p>Lopez is a “mench”; Jeter, what about you???</p>

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<p>I read that Miller Beer was helping the guy cover the taxes to support his “doing the right thing”. I wish they would help the ranger too - amazing story!</p>

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<p>Seems to me all the swag the Yankees gave him was a gift, not a prize, not income, and therefore not taxable to the guy who caught the ball.</p>

<p>But it also seems his returning the ball to Jeter was a gift, taxable under the federal gift tax. Which means he’d need to file a federal gift tax return on it. No tax liability now, but if I understand how this works (and I’m no expert), it should count against his unified gift & estate tax credit, which means if he dies with a substantial estate it could have estate tax consequences. Is that right, tax experts?</p>

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<p>Seems to me all the swag the Yankees gave him was a gift, not a prize, not income, and therefore not taxable to the guy who caught the ball.</p>

<p>But it also seems his returning the ball to Jeter was a gift, taxable under the federal gift tax. Which means he’d need to file a federal gift tax return on it. No tax liability now, but if I understand how this works (and I’m no expert), it should count against his unified gift & estate tax credit, which means if he dies with a substantial estate it could have estate tax consequences. Is that right, tax experts?</p>

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<p>Where’s Taxguy when we need him???</p>

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<p>The difference is that what the fan received was a deduction to the Yankees. Therefore, a taxable event to the recipient. The fan then gifted the ball back to the Yankees, but he’s not deducting it from his taxes, so no taxable event. Gifts are never taxable to the recipient.</p>

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<p>Apparently some local businessmen have gotten together to pay the taxes and give the gentlemen some other goodies. Noteworthy that Jeter didn’t do anything. I guess he’s entitled.</p>