As we all know, around this great country of ours, Barry Bonds scored his 756th home run recently breaking the all-time home run record of 755 set by Hank Aaron. A sports fan from New Jersey caught that ball which has a specified value to it. He was recently informed that he would be receiving a tax bill just for catching the ball. Why would he be receiving a tax bill if he has not sold the ball to anyone which would earn him 1 million dollars? From what I read, the government would collect roughly $100,000 to $200,000 in taxes. Please advise.
March 20th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
beacuse of the value placed on the ball, uncle sam has his hands in everything and everyones pocket, it is called capitol gains tax
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
because the govt will do anything and tax anything they can to make money
March 26th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Several reasons, pick one.
Because they can.
Greed.
They’ll adjust (grab more) the amount later.
His children were not yet motgaged.
They hate Barry too.
They thought his bribe was a little light.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:43 am
Congratulations - you’ve just made this topic the most over rated topic in the history of Yahoo. The IRS has not sent him a bill, nor will they unless he sells the ball. Note that in all of the articles written about this, none of them has actually talked to the IRS, only to “experts”. As many of these “historic” balls that have been out there the last few years ( McGwire’s 70th, Bonds’ 73rd, etc.) we have not yet heard of this issue before. The law has not changed since then, and none of those people received a tax bill from the IRS ubtil they sold the ball.
This dude is just trying to get some sympathy. Sorry, but I can’t feel sorry for someone who’s gonna make the money he will just because a baseball happened to come his way. The guy said that he didn’t want to sell it, but before the game he made a deal with his buddy that if one of them caught the ball, they would split the proceeds - 51% to the guy who got the ball and 49% to the other one. Does this sound like a man who didn’t plan on selling it? Then he says that he hopes whoever buys it donates to the Hall of Fame. Why doesn’t he just do that ? Then he wouldn’t pay taxes on it because he could then deduct the value of the ball from his income. Sorry to say, but this guy is talking out of both sides of his mouth. He’s had his 15 minutes of fame and liked it, so he’s trying to get even more publicity. I’ll be real glad when he sells the thing and disappears from sight with his money.