Money You Earn In New Jersey Stays In New Jersey

Recall the tourist ads for Las Vegas…”What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?” Well, New Jersey has brought forth their own slogan…” What you earn in New Jersey, stays in New Jersey.”

Star Denver Broncos Quarterback Peyton Manning will find that out if he loses the Super Bowl this year and decides to keep playing another year instead of retiring, which is a distinct possibility. Via Breitbart News:

K. Sean Packard, also known as @AthleteTax, did an analysis for Forbes and noted that the winner’s share in the Super Bowl is $92,000 this year while the loser’s is $46,000. If Manning retires after this season, which he said he would consider doing if doctors tell him his health would be in danger if he played another year, “New Jersey will collect approximately $1,575 from him if the Broncos win and $982 if they lose.”

But as Packard notes, since the Broncos play at the Jets next season at MetLife Stadium, “should Manning continue his career into the 2014 season, New Jersey will collect an additional $45,000 from him by taxing income he has not even earned yet.” He notes that “Manning is due $15 million next season, which would push his 2014 earnings to $15,157,000 or $15,111,000, and bump him into Jersey’s highest 8.97% tax bracket. Luckily, his duty day ratio would go from 7/33 to 7/200, without regard to the Broncos’ game at MetLife Stadium against the Jets next season.”

Bottom line: If the Broncos win the Super Bowl and Manning plays next year, “his New Jersey income tax would be $46,989 on $92,000 for winning the Super Bowl, or 51.08%.”

But if Manning loses the Super Bowl and plays in 2014, “he will pay New Jersey $46,844 on his $46,000, which amounts to a 101.83% tax on his actual Super Bowl earnings in the state—and this does not even consider federal taxes!”

That is what one would call confiscatory.

Confiscatory my ass, that is what’s called “slave wages.” If I were Peyton Manning, I’d just make a pre game statement saying that any money he makes win or lose at the Super Bowl will go to his favorite charity and encourage all other players to do the same. That might put a crimp in the coffers of the New Jersey Income Tax Service.