(Un)lucky catch

Written by Johan on August 18, 2007 – 1:26 pm

Matt Murphy must have felt really lucky when he caught Barry Bonds record breaking homerun baseball. The student from New York was in California watching the game, when Bonds hit him with his 756th homerun — a great record, made less great by Bonds doping affairs.

Mr Murphy, however, did not just get himself a great collectible when catching that ball. He also got the attention of tax agencies, both federal and from two states. In spite of the fact that Mr Murphy has not earned himself any money, he is now obliged to pay 35% of the ball’s estimated value in federal taxes on top of state taxes to both California and New York. All in all this add up to the rather large sum of $276 000 dollars. That is pretty tough for a student who really has not got the $500 000 that government says he has.

Any tax system that taxes people on money they do not actually have will inevitably lead to bizarre situations, like this. In effect, what it means is that only already rich people can keep collectibles. Everyone else will be forced to sell them, or go to jail for tax evasion. Is that really reasonable?

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Heads up: Ministry of Truth
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Posted in International | 2 Comments »

2 Comments to “(Un)lucky catch”

  1. Petter Says:
    August 18th, 2007 at 2:52 pm

    Geez, why don’t they just shoot anyone trying to catch the damn ball; then everybody stay away from it and no one gets any luckier than anyone else! Now that’s a recepie for the abscence of unhappiness the government has overlooked.

    Absurd. But PC nevertheless.

  2. Brenna Says:
    August 19th, 2007 at 5:23 pm

    Those pesky tax collectors (with the blessing of Uncle Sam) will try to get their paws on money anyway they can! Blah.

    On a more important note, why I wasn’t taxed for keeping the ball that hit me at the Redhawks game? Maybe the welt was punsihment enough? :P

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