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Athletes

KPMG: Where Former College Athletes Go to Die

And a two-time Winter Olympic gold medalist too. From the Wall Street Journal: Accounting firm KPMG hires 3,500 college students each year in the U.S., and although the firm doesn’t target or track specific sports in its hiring, James Powell, national partner in charge of campus recruiting, says that he’s noticed that baseball, softball, swimming and diving […]

The Stupid But Wealthy Athlete’s Guide to Not Getting Ripped Off

Wealthy athletes are easy to scam. Really easy. Not all athletes know how to handle a fortune. Wealthy athletes are good at playing sports, not managing their millions. We financial types who know how to do sexy stuff like add (er, ten key and use spreadsheets) have a duty to protect the investor –- even […]

Tip for Pro Athletes: Getting Fined May Have Tax Advantages

[caption id="attachment_8735" align="alignright" width="260" caption="Chad, sans sombrero"][/caption]

Misbehaving athletes (or fun hating NFL, NBA, MLB administrators) should take note, getting fined can apparently do wonders for your itemized deductions.

That’s according to a report from Darren Rovell at CNBC, anyway. He cites sports accountant Robert Raiola of Van Duyne, Behrens & Co. who says that fines are “classified as ordinary business expenses,” so once the amount of those expenses exceed 2% of the taxpayers adjusted gross income, the expenses are deductible.


Of course, what isn’t mentioned is that it’s likely that a professional athlete’s itemized deductions would probably be limited since it’s safe to assume that their itemized deductions are greater than $166,800. So in other words, it might work out well for Chad Ochocinco to get fined on a weekly basis for wearing sombreros, bribing officials, and/or any other tomfoolery that the NFL finds fineable but without all the information it’s difficult to determine if this is actually a worth tax-planning strategy. Athletes – please consult your tax advisor that is probably already robbing you blind.

Need A Tax Deduction? Get Fined For Something [CNBC via Tax Policy Blog]