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Christian Lopez and Derek Jeter
Christian Lopez, the Yankee fan who caught Derek Jeter’s homerun (and 3,000th hit), thought he was doing the right thing when he gave the ball back to Jeter. He could have sold the ball to a collector for what some say as much as $500,000.
Baseball teams make a killing every year on fans by charging $9 a beer and ticket prices that continue to rise. No one would have given Lopez a hard time if he decide to get a payday. Instead he traded the ball to the Yankees and Jeter for luxury tickets to all the remaining home Yankee games, valued at around $50,000.
Yesterday the internet world was abuzz that Lopez will owe taxes on those tickets. The IRS will review the situation and possibly tax Lopez up to $14,000 for “income”. This is in addition to the $100,000 student loans he already has. It was just announced by ESPN that two companies will come to Lopez’s aid, should the IRS taxes him. He’ll also receive his own baseball card and 2009 World Series ring.
I think the Yankees are missing out on a perfect PR opportunity by doing the right thing for Lopez and picking up his possible tax bill. Yes they did help him, but $14,000 is nothing to the Yankees. To put things into perspective, Jeter is making $16 million a year (or $98k per game, or $11k per inning). Couldn’t the Yankees or Jeter spare 1.5 innings of pay to help this guy?
If I’m not mistaken though, won’t Jeter have some taxes to pay too? If the ball is worth $500k, won’t he have to pay a gift tax on that? This is the same situation of Oprah giving away a trip to Australia. If the ball is the property of Lopez and he gave it to Jeter, this could mean an extra $500,000 of taxable compensation for Jeter, while Lopez would see a corresponding deduction. I’m far from a tax expert (thank God for TurboTax), but that is my understanding of the current tax law.
If my understanding is wrong, please let me know and I’ll post it.
