I grew up in a baseball family so, you either enjoy it or become miserable. Luckily I enjoy it. My family is also HUGE San Francisco Giants fans so Bonds’ hitting this record breaking home run was big news for us. Even being a bookkeeper and former tax preparer I don’t think “taxes” when I think baseball so it actually surprised me when I started seeing a lot of discussion about Bonds’ home run baseball on a bookkeeping discussion list I frequent. So, being the curious baseball fan I am I had to see what the fuss was about.

It seems that the person who caught this historic ball now has a huge tax problem on his hands. There’s an issue called a “treasure trove” tax issue that says you need to pay taxes at the time you receive a valuable treasure. (They uphold this with treasure seekers who dive for treasure offshore.) Many are saying that catching Bonds’ record breaking ball is the same thing. So, this young college student who happened to catch this ball might owe a whopping $210,000 in taxes. Ouch.

Here are a couple articles on the subject and if you google it you’ll find a lot more. It’s kind of interesting. Something to think about at least.

The biggest moral of the story — be careful. And, be sure to find a very reputable tax person if you come into a treasure like this.

Fan who caught Bonds’ record-breaking baseball finds himself in a taxing situation

The Big Catch Could Have A Big Catch

[tags]baseball,taxes[/tags]