刚好最近Propublica发表了一篇
https://reurl.cc/XWxlea
"The Billionaire Playbook: How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Millions
in Taxes"
【职业球队的老板们如何规避上百万美元的税金】
简单节录几段关于快艇老板Steve Ballmer的部分:
For the prior year, Ballmer reported making $656 million. The dollar figure
he paid in taxes was large, $78 million; but as a percentage of what he made,
it was tiny. Records reviewed by ProPublica show his federal income tax rate
was just 12%.
That’s a third of the rate James paid, even though Ballmer made five times
as much as the superstar player. Ballmer’s rate was also lower than Avila’s
— even though Ballmer’s income was almost 15,000 times greater than the
concession worker’s.
据报导前一年Ballmer的收入为6.56亿美金，伴随7800万的联邦税
然而尽管Ballmer的收入是超级巨星Lebron James的五倍以上
12%的税率却只有Lebron James的三分之一
甚至还低于在球场工作、年收四万的清洁员
为什么Ballmer只需要缴这么少的税?
因为美国的税务条款里规范
当某人购入一家企业时
他们通常可以在接下来几年的收入中扣除几乎全部的企业售价
换句话说
企业里所含的各种asset会受折旧影响，也就可以被视为开销
一只球队最珍贵的资产像是电视台合约or明星球员
几乎可以保证源源不绝的收入来源
但是老板们仍然可以在税务上变魔术 削减球队帐面上的价值
如此一来尽管球队有赚钱他们也可以合法向IRS报告亏损
根据IRS公布的纪录
快艇在近几年里一共提报了将近7亿美金的亏损
Ballmer不但不需要缴实质收益的税金
还可以用tax write-off去抵销他其他的业务的税
https://i.imgur.com/7BB3aar.png
这张图一目了然
原文还很长 但非常值得一读