Seth Davis article profiling John Higgins

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by chapmaja

Yeah, he's still making a nice chunk. I am just working on my taxes now and I brought in well over 10K, but that was nearly cut in half by allowable deductions. If the NCAA guys are getting paid an average of 2500 per night, but that includes their travel, lodging, food, ect, then they are losing the ability to deduct those items from their income, thus they are paying SE tax on the vast majority of what they are making. At $2500 per game, the government is getting over $350 per game in SE tax. Add in the income tax the government also charges and that $2500 is much closer to $1500 per game. They lose a lot of money to taxes, but still are making a TON of money for those seasons they work.

I think your understanding of how the tax forms work is incorrect.

If you get paid (say) $1,500 plus *actual* expenses of $1,000, then all the taxes are just on the $1,500 and there's no entry for the expenses.

If you get paid $1,500 plus a per diem of $1,000, then you deduct your actual expenses (might be $800; $1,000; $1,200) from the $2,500 and pay taxes on the balance. Assuming the actual expenses were the same $1,000, then either way gives the same results.