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[quote billb]
Thousands of sports writers speculated the value of that ball long before it was caught.
But they were speculating on the value of the ball if it were to be SOLD.
If he doesn't sell the ball EVER, it's not worth more than the COMPARABLE RETAIL PRICE until he does.
This is my opinion (and seems to me to make real economic sense), of course, and the IRS apparently sees things differently, which is why they are the IRS and I am not.
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What of he had decided to give it to Barry? Does the guy assume ownership of the ball as soon as he catches it and thus be held accountable for the tax on it? Then he hands it over to barry with no money changing hands. Dies Barry have to pay the tax upon receipt?
There is no way to place a value on that ball until it is sold for cold hard cash. Estimated value is a joke. There is no consensus on the value so there is no legitimate way to estimate it.
I do know this, though. If they stick it to this guy, I'm going to claim each and every expense involved in going to any baseball game from here on out. Travel expenses, food, game tickets.... everything. You name it. If they are going to claim it as "income", I'm gonna claim it as a job. I figure I can probably get away with showing a loss for up... what is it, three years?
I'm amazed that I'm still amazed that the little guy still gets shafted at every opportunity in this country. For Christ's sake it's a baseball.
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If they try to collect, he could burn it, destroy it, etc. Then it has $0 value and the IRS would loose out on any potential return.
As I said before, I haven't seen anything/anyone directed related to the IRS stating this. It has all be hearsay so far. I don't remember this being done in any other situation - so, in a court, the IRS would have little recourse. I still think that it is a ploy to get the kid to sell it.
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>> If they are going to claim it as "income", I'm gonna claim it as a job.
(vkim), that is the smartest thing I have ever heard said in this thread, on this board, maybe in my lifetime.
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[quote $tevie]It seems to be more of a rumor than a hard fact:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=...SRMMGJ.DTL
Well, that's why we're arguing about it. ;-)
Baseball. Just like life.
"The IRS does not comment about an individual taxpayer's situation, and we don't speculate on a hypothetical," Jesse Weller said.
There doesn't appear to be a precedent for the situation, and a pair of Bay Area tax experts disagreed on whether Murphy has cause for concern.
Eric Rakowski, a law professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall, said the ball could be viewed as a windfall that is part of Murphy's income.
"That might be the right view," Rakowski said. "Nobody knows whether it's the right view because the IRS refuses to say."
Stanford law Professor Joseph Bankman called the prospect of Murphy being taxed before sale "almost an urban legend."
"When an ordinary person," he said, "finds something that is valuable but not very liquid, and is hard to get the exact value of, we don't tax that person until sale."
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Ok, you can all stop arguing. I just heard on CNN that the IRS said he doesn't owe any taxes unless he sells it.
And we all know that everything we hear on CNN is true!
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It's not just a ball anymore.
It's THE ball.
There are NO other balls in the world like it.
It is extremely rare. One of a kind rare.
Your definition of gross income and the IRS's must be different.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_income
(the IRS's is waaaaayyyyyyyyy too long to post) :-)
Edit:
For the record, the ball has no value to me. But I know I could get more than 12.99 for it in San Francisco.
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[quote Seacrest]>> If they are going to claim it as "income", I'm gonna claim it as a job.
(vkim), that is the smartest thing I have ever heard said in this thread, on this board, maybe in my lifetime.
LOL! If that's true, you really need to get out more ;-)
Still, pretty nice ring to it, eh? Can you imagine the conversation?
"Hi, I'm in insurance. What do you do?"
"Oh, I'm a full time ball retriever."
"Really? How's that going for ya?"
"Well, it's pretty much hit and miss" ;-)
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