Esports players are disc🃏overing the terri🦂ble world of the American Tax Code.
This might come as a surprise to some, but Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitut𝓰ion allows states to tax nonresidents on their personal income. For most people, this doesn’t matter since the State of California isn’t about to tax Jon Doe for his personal income if he’s a mechanic working in Idaho. But for professional sports stars, this becomes more relevant. Suddenly, these players making multi-million-dollar marketing contracts and appearance fees ꦗmake an attractive target for state tax enforcement.
And while this attention used ꧟to be reserved for NBA, NFL, and various other N-based sports leagues, professional 🌳esports players are starting to get more and more scrutiny as the industry grows.
A new report from points out that professional esports stars are becoming the 𝕴target of tax collectors thanks to ever-increasing prize pools.
Especially now that larger leagues such as the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Call of Duty League, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Overwatch League, and are adopting franchise models, it's now easier than ever for state tax collectors to keep track of where teams are located, where they'll be playi𒊎ng, and just how big a prize they'll takeไ home if they win a local tournament.
Take Overwatch League player Jay “Sinatraa” Won of the San Francisco Shock. After winning the Overwatch Le🧜ague Grand Finals last year in Philly, he ♉found out that he’d have to pay 55% on his prize winnings.
This likely came as a shock to players in the Overwatch League, since ignorance usually kept players from paying these state taxes on professional athletes. Those days are gone as now the leagues themselves are withholding taxes in order to comply with state tax legislatio🥀n.
It's not always the case that leagues will do the tax math for players, however, and leagues that label players and casters as contractors still technically have to pay even if they receive their full payment from th𝄹e league. A lawyer speaking to The Post said that iಌt's possible that in the future state tax collectors will track players using their IP addresses to make sure they pay up.
For n♓ow, though, professional esports players are learning that even if they win big, Uncle Sam takes❀ his cut.
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