Fan Who Caught Jeter's 3,000th Hit May Owe IRS Thousands

Fan Who Caught Jeter

www.nbcnewyork.com

The Verizon salesman from Highland Mills, N.Y., gave the ball back to Jeter, whom he called an "icon," and the Yankees lavished a slew of prizes, including luxury box seats for every remaining home game this season and post-season and some signed memorabilia.
Now the IRS wants a piece. The prizes Lopez received are estimated to be worth more than $32,000 -- and, like game show contestants, Lopez may have to pay taxes on the gifts and prizes because the IRS considers them income.
Some estimate the IRS will put Lopez on the hook for anywhere between $5,000 and $13,000, reports the

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is ridiculous! That is a pretty stunning amount of money for a gift tax.

Even if I was their biggest fan, I would have to give the gifts back. That would put a large ding in my financial situation.

MODS: Not sure exactly where this story belongs. My head tells me here as while it is sports related, it isn't about the game itself. Please move if necessary.

www.nbcnewyork.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

LMAO wow it gets better by the day. This is a good example of government going out of control and being so overbloated that at any given moment it will pop. I don't know how they sleep at night really. The sad part was that he gave the ball back for free yet he is something like 100,000 dollars in debt due to student loans. Personally I think he is an idiot for not selling the ball (Jeter is a multimillioniare) and decreasing his debt. What has Jeter offered him through his own generosity? Nothing, now the IRS is coming knocking on his door

reply to post by TDawgRex

I'm afraid as ridiculous as it is this is the way Uncle Sam rolls. I have been raped and abused myself by the US tax system and IRS in particular. It's one of the reasons I lost my inheritance that I thought I'd have to fall back on in retirement. Well, divorce and taxes both.

Just another example of the government putting their hands in our pocket books. For one thing, the guy never sold the ball, so why tax him. If he turned around and sold it, he than made cash and could use some of it to pay for the tax.

Our government will find anything they can to tax us. A gift is a gift and if someone owns something valuable, the government shouldn't have a right to be a legalized bookie and ask for their share of the winnings.

Well, the Govt has to pay for Obamacare some how.

Wow, what bad luck. If he had been a congressman, he could just blow off the tax and not worry about it.
Does that mean the Yankees have to pay tax on the ball since it was a gift from him?

Same thing happened with Barry Bonds' ball a few years ago.

He couldnt pay the taxes so he had to sell it:

Mr. Murphy, who is 21, told the AP, “I’m upset by the decision I had to make…I wanted to keep it. I’m young. I don’t have the bank account. … It would have cost me a lot more to keep it.”

He had to sell it to pay the taxes.

Congratulations on catching the ball, now pay us 40% of the estimated auction value of it.

they missed the tax on the ball he gave back that had to be worth a couple of grand on ebay.

exxonmobile 19 bill in profits 2009 paid no federal tax. acordineg to sec filings recievieved a 156 million rebate from irs.

bank of america recived a 1.9 billion tax refund 2010 made 4.4 bill in profits and bailout of nearly one trillion.

last five years general electric made 26 billion in profits, recieved 4.1 billion refund from irs.

the list goes on but seriously how did you think they were gonna keep paying for all this??

i would take them to court and pay them the worth of one baseball. any extra value is ascribed by human perception.

I can tell an even weirder similar story.

A woman here won 50 Euros of free shopping, Social Services wanted to hold that amount off her Social Security.

I am sick of the exploitation of the poor.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Pretty sad, pretty sad... Man, if only those planes on 9/11 would have hit the IRS building and the UN building instead...

I saw this story this morning. The article I read said that IF the items given to the fan were considered gifts, then they are not taxable. From the way the transaction went down, it sounds to me that the fan has a great argument for the items being gifts.

Christian Lopez, 23, caught the ball and promptly handed it over to the Yankees without demanding any kind of payment, the Daily News reported. The Yankees rewarded him with suite seats for the rest of the season, plus a heap of autographed team memorabilia.

That's what could cost Lopez. According to The New York Times, the total value of the seats and loot could exceed $120,000. The IRS would consider that to be taxable income, several accountants told both newspapers.

However, if it were construed as a gift, it would not be taxable, Columbia University law professor Michael J. Graetz told the Times.

news.blogs.cnn.com...

Edit: to add that I also heard that the auction estimate for the ball would have been somewhere around $1,000,000. The fan received a mere $120,000 in gifts. I wonder if he could file this as a loss of $880,000 rather than a gain of $120,000...

It's hilarious really to use this instance as a situation where taxation is applied.

What about gifts from foreign dignataries to politicians in the US? Do they have to pay tax on these, should they, do they?!? Any one know? If Obama is not paying taxes on gifts from his recent visit to Europe then the guy should go to court and point this out. I also understand the difference between gifts to the office of President and gifts to the Obama family.

Edit to add: Just proves yet again, hnesty and decency DOES NOT pay in the Western World, he could have been debt free with 350k left after taxes if he had stuck his finger up at them...

Try and find the statute that gives the IRS lawful authority over the people, as a branch of government, in the United States. Go on, I DARE you.

You wont find it. Many IRS employees have learnt this, and have therefore gone away and refused to pay their taxes to the IRS. Happy days!

This guy owes the IRS diddly squat.

The Revenant.

This is amazing. It’s the U.S. government doing what they do best…playing mobster.

The U.S. government went on a man hunt if you will, against all mafia families saying they were committing criminal acts against the United States.

Yes, they were committing criminal acts by murdering people, stealing and other acts. But most of all, what they were doing that really got under the skin of the U.S. government…They were acting like them.

Taking money from people with the promise of protection. The U.S. government does this every time we get a paycheck. Take, take , take.

The mobsters were not public enemies; they were competition for the U.S. Government.

reply to post by KnightFire

Yep yep.
The old adage of "Don't steal. The Govt hates competition".

Well...sucks to be that guy eh?

Too bad required reading in high school isn't :

'Secrets of The Federal Reserve' by Eustance Mullins

if it was then this man would be able to reference his copy and clearly see that the IRS was set up almost immediately after the Federal Reserve System was signed into Law.

IRS is only a symptom of the problem......The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 signed by Woodrow Wilson and drafted by Paul Warburg (Rothschild Representative) gave the House of Rothschild the ability to script our last century to their liking...

they like money and with that comes war and propaganda

reply to post by macman


LOL, you got it!

derek jeeter could always be a sav and say were not gonna GIVE you the tickets and buy them for the dude him self sure he can affort the tax hit would raise my respect for the yankees not much but still