I was speaking with some friends at the coffee shop this morning about state income taxes. I explained that before I became an attorney I worked for the Seattle Mariners. There, for the first time, I learned that ballplayers were taxed by the other teams’ states for the portion of their salaries earned the opponents’ states. In other words, Ken Griffey, Jr.had to file a tax return in some 20 different states each year. I assumed everyone knew this, but my two friends thought it was very interesting and had no idea.

Some states do not have income tax. Some states do not have professional baseball teams. The states have different tax rates, and they tend to calculate the amount of tax due differently. Most use the “duty days” method, which divides the player’s total number of work days during the season by the number of days spent playing in the state. A few use the “games played” method, which divides the total number of games in the season by the number played in the state.  Some count practice days or days where there is an organized team activity, as well!

This must drive the players’ accountants crazy trying to figure it all out. And it must get expensive to pay not only the tax preparation but also the taxes. Lucky for MLB players, they can afford it. The current average salary is $3.4 MIllion.