Fan who returned Jeter ball getting baseball card

[CapitalCityCat]

http://www.komonews.com/sports/12556338 ... height=279" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I read the headline on this story and thought "Wow, this guy wasn't a very good negotiator". Turns out that the Topps company is giving this guy his "own" card to be distributed in sets later this year.

In addition, he's already been promised at least $50,000 by a sports memorabilia collector (for returning the ball) and has been requested for numerous appearances.

Kudos to this guy for returning the baseball. It seems to have paid off very nicely for him.

[grizzh8r]

http://www.komonews.com/sports/12556338 ... height=279

I read the headline on this story and thought "Wow, this guy wasn't a very good negotiator". Turns out that the Topps company is giving this guy his "own" card to be distributed in sets later this year.

In addition, he's already been promised at least $50,000 by a sports memorabilia collector (for returning the ball) and has been requested for numerous appearances.

Kudos to this guy for returning the baseball. It seems to have paid off very nicely for him.

Only problem is, he has to pay taxes on all that stuff, plus they gave him Season Tickets to the remaining Yankees games, including the playoffs. He's in a mountain of debt already, something like $150K in student loan debt. At least that's what I heard on ESPN about the situation. Poor guy!

[catamaran]

Miller High Life is going to "gift" him any tax liability he incurs from this

[SonomaCat]

Miller High Life is going to "gift" him any tax liability he incurs from this

And when somebody else pays your debts on your behalf, that is also taxable income, so he'll have to pay tax on that ... presumably Miller is going to gross him up on the whole thing (pay for his tax on the tax on the tax on the tax as X approaches zero).

I'm not really sure why anybody is the least bit sympathetic about him having to pay tax on any of this stuff. He received a bunch of really valuable stuff from somebody else. In virtually every other circumstance, when somebody gives you money or anything else of value, you pay tax on that income. The same theory applies even if the service you provided to society was catching a baseball. And, just like anyone else who gets a lot of money or other valuable items from somebody else, he still comes out way ahead on the deal (even if his taxes weren't being sponsored by a beer company).