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The former owners of the Memphis Grizzlies have come up short again in their attempt to claim a $10.7 million tax deduction for deferred compensation owed to Mike Conley and Zach Randolph. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a ruling by the U.S. Tax Court to uphold an IRS disallowance of Hoops LP deduction claimed at the close of the 2012 tax year.
Former New York Knick and Atlanta Hawks center Randolph Morris has failed to convince a federal judge to suppress statements he made during a FaceTime conversation with two IRS special agents while he was in China and they were in the kitchen of his Kentucky home. In a ruling Friday from the U.S. district court in Lexington, Kentucky, Chief Judge Danny Reeves denied Morris’ motion to suppress evidence gathered during the intercontinental conversation on Sept. 12, 2018. The main reason: It was Morris’s idea to use FaceTime, and he was free to end the call.
Clippers reported $700 million in losses in recent years
Glimpses of the Clippers’ real-world financial results show the business has often been profitable. Those include audited financials disclosed in a Bank of America report just before Ballmer bought the team, as well as NBA records that were leaked after he became owner. But IRS records obtained by ProPublica show the Clippers have reported $700 million in losses for tax purposes in recent years. Not only does Ballmer not have to pay tax on any real-world Clippers profits, he can use the tax write-off to offset his other income.
Leaked NBA records during Ballmer’s tenure showed the Clippers in the black as recently as 2017. Audited financials disclosed in the Bank of America report just before the sale showed the team netting $14 million and $18 million in the two years before Ballmer took over, with projected growth in the future. Tax records for the pre-Ballmer era examined by ProPublica showed the team consistently making millions in profits. Forbes has also estimated the team generates millions in annual profits. Nevertheless, Ballmer reported staggering losses from the Clippers to the IRS. Those losses allowed him to reduce the taxes he owed on the billions he has reaped from Microsoft stock sales and dividends. Owning the Clippers cut his tax bill by about $140 million in just five years, according to a ProPublica analysis.
Ira Winderman: Reading Yahoo's wonderful coverage of the NCAA play-for-pay basketball payouts have to wonder about the IRS implications. Unlikely any of that money/income trail showed up on tax statements. Seems like there will have to be a lot of explaining to do on that end should IRS enter.
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Jerry Reinsdorf’s story is as unlikely as it is encouraging, a Horatio Alger journey. A kid growing up in a Brooklyn apartment building scratching around and working odd jobs. Find the 50 cents to get into a Knicks game or $1.25 to attend a Brooklyn Dodgers game, ride the subway there and usually end up walking home because he didn't have a nickel left. A man who not only went on to a rewarding career in business and astonishing life in sports, but whose path illuminated a handbook for life. “I think about where I came from; who could even have dreamt this?” asks Reinsdorf. “But success is a combination of a lot of things. It’s working hard, being honest, surrounding yourself with the right people, being lucky, getting help from people. It’s the thing I’ve always agreed with President Obama about: If you’re successful, you didn’t do it yourself. You had to have had help. My whole life I’ve had help and luck. “Just coming to Chicago,” Reinsdorf notes. “I got mad at George Washington (University) because they reneged on a job offer. That wasn’t a rational decision to pick up and come to Chicago. Then when I got out of law school, the IRS would not let me go back to New York because the rules were you couldn’t work in your home state. So I stayed in Chicago. Then there was the American League turning down Edward DeBartolo Sr. (who had the first offer to buy the White Sox), then the dinner with Steinbrenner.
In an email sent to Milwaukee players on Wednesday night, the franchise termed the issue as a “serious security incident” and took responsibility for an employee distributing 2015 IRS W-2 documents in an email scam in which team president Peter Feigin was impersonated, sources said. The W-2 information included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, compensation information and dates of birth. An unknown party requested the private documents on April 26, and the Bucks ultimately discovered on May 16 that the financial forms were sent to a spoof hacker, according to the email sent to players.
He left behind debt, more discovered every day as creditors hound his oldest son. The IRS wants money, and so do at least eight credit cards. The team, which found out about the financial issues after Rabedeaux died, is working to pay the family a $50,000 accidental death benefit, plus the remaining amount owed per his contract, but all of that will certainly be carved into pieces by his creditors. When all the lawyers and accountants are finished, Jason Rabedeaux will have coached 26 years, in five countries, for a total of $900 -- the amount in his money clip, which Eva found after he died and turned in to the team. He left behind a mystery. "Just to slip and fall and hit your head and you die," says former roommate Jonathan Jones. "That seems weird to me. That's not adding up." "Did he do stuff we didn't know about?" Garbelotto says. "Was he going to the middle of Saigon and getting hard drugs? Everything is in play."
With the Indiana Pacers languishing in public perception and on the court in 2007, team co-owner Mel Simon approached his brother and co-owner Herb about selling the team, according to a lawsuit filed in Colorado. Bren Simon, Mel Simon's widow, is suing the Internal Revenue Service in U.S. District Court for return of $21 million that she paid in protest. She contends the IRS improperly interpreted money Mel received from an ownership reorganization of the Pacers in 2009 as a gift.
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Professional athletes are among our nation’s highest-paid employees and, as such, a huge chunk of their income is plowed into the government via the IRS. In fact, federal taxes owed by professional baseball, football, and basketball players will exceed $3 billion in 2013, according to tax experts who specialize in representing athletes. And, like every other U.S. taxpayer, their bill is due today. That’s $3 billion of the $2.5 trillion paid in federal taxes by all Americans, contributed by a select but paltry work force of about 3,000. On average, every MLB, NFL and NBA player pays $1 million in federal taxes.
Kevin Durant says his personal chef is for pleasure ... not for business ... and now KD is suing his accountant claiming the guy tried to screw over the IRS by making it seem the cook was an essential part of his NBA career. TMZ Sports has learned ... Durant is going after Joel Elliott -- claiming Elliott got him in some deep trouble with Uncle Sam over the years by trying to write off several business expenses that clearly weren't business related. Case in point -- Durant's personal chef. In his lawsuit, Durant says, "Fees paid to a personal chef would not be regarded by a reasonably prudent accountant as qualifying for a business expense deduction."
According to the complaint which I obtained, Zafar last December agreed to spend $3 million over three seasons for Heat courtside seats and other benefits but did not submit payment. A month later, Zafar asked Stephen Weber, who was then the Heat’s executive vice president/sales, to introduce him to “Heat players with businesses Zafar… could invest in.” According to the complaint, Miller, “at Weber’s urging, met with Zafar at Heat offices,” and Weber told Miller that Zafar was “the real deal.” The complaint said at the time of that January meeting, the Heat and Weber “knew that Zafar had not paid his obligation to the Heat and had disclosed he was using a false, or at least, unofficial, identity and had disclosed he was under IRS investigation.”
The estate of former Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson is challenging the government in U.S. Tax Court over billions of dollars claimed by the IRS. The Detroit Free Press says the Internal Revenue Service objects to how Davidson's accountants valued stock in his company, Guardian Industries, which makes glass and parts for the auto industry.
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