Bob_Loblaw
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Taxation in sports and entertainment is always incredibly complicated. I believe NIL would be just like NFL. The NFL also has a tremendous amount of revenue sharing (they don't sell their individual TV rights).Players don’t have W2 income in college football. They’ll be 1099
Players have W2 income in the nfl
It’s not apples to apples.
You’re correct I’m out of my depth.
But if it’s revenue share does the revenue share include when big ten shows games after the fact on various networks?
Does it include big ten media days?
Does it include big ten awards shows and contractually obligated media appearances?
Etc
A lot of moving parts.
Perhaps you can answer all these questions. I’m not really making claims. Just thinking out loud
Being a 1099 also does not have an impact on them for these questions.
As to exactly how it work, it's a complicated taxation issue just like it is for everywhere with the jock tax. I'd guess the clever NIL programs are structuring the deals in a way that is the most beneficial to the players.
I'm trying to figure out a way a clever tax attorney would structure the deal to avoid paying California state income taxes. For example, if a TT player's NIL deal was based on them being an ambassador to the school and representative of Texas Tech University, I don't think that would work. Assuming they had a game against UCLA, California would argue that an essential part of his contract is doing business in California. The income earned by that business would be taxable income in California.
Now if you structured it like explicitly listing events all located in Lubbock, then a player could literally hold out for away games and not be in breach of contract. "You want me to play in this game at Michigan, I'll sit out unless you pay me."
I'm sure there is a way but states are often just as clever.
FYI - Some wild speculation and tin foil hat conspiracy: A ton of players are going to have major IRS issues in the future unless the NCAA proactively helps them. I don't think the NCAA is going to do that because I think they want it to be as chaotic as possible right now to force Congress to act.

