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In the days since the 2026 Super Bowl football game, I have seen several articles about players on the winning team having to pay California more in state income taxes than the bonuses the players received for winning the game. All because the players were in the state for ten or more days. Thus, according to California law, players owe California a proportion of their entire annual pay.
So?
This California visitor's income tax is not new.
This California visitor's income tax is not limited to highly paid athletes.
This California visitor's income tax is a feature of California government stupidity.
And has been for a long time.
Although I grew up mostly in Southern California, in 2000 I moved to New York State for a job. Beginning in about 2010, a part of my job became supervising a couple of company offices in California. This required me to physically visit those offices a few times per year.
I kept careful track of how many days I spent in California for those visits. If those days accumulated to ten or more in a calendar year (which my employer would know, since travel was booked through the company’s travel program), I would owe California income taxes based on a proportion of my total annual income. And, because of its connections to California, my employer was obligated to track that information and to report it to the state. So, I made sure to keep my cumulative visits to the company’s California offices to fewer than ten days in a calendar year. Although I found the first half of December a beneficial time to travel for business, I sometimes skipped visits to the California offices lest I incur taxation by the state of California.
California’s taxation of visitors from out of state affects not only highly paid professional athletes. It also affects salespeople, equipment service technicians, lawyers, accountants, and other people who have reason to enter the state for temporary work assignments. This includes the clerical staff and equipment grunts who accompany sports teams to support the team’s games.
Discussion (20)
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I know people who do not inform their employers of their location (for longer trips) for this reason: the company would fire them if they had to do state tax paperwork.
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Many years ago I was doing consulting work for a Korean engineering that had several construction projects going on in Saudi Arabia. I would usually stop off at the Koreans' US office in New Jersey while traveling between my home in Oregon and the Saudi jobsites.
I was surprised to receive an income tax bill from the state of New Jersey for the time I was in the New Jersey office. I never discovered how New Jersey figured out how much time I had spent in the state. I can imagine that they have a huge bureaucracy just to collect that small tax.
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Meh. This is old hat. In 2010 I played bass oboe in the Toledo symphony. Spent five days in Ohio including Sunday, traveling home. Paid Ohio income tax on the earnings.
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Where I worked (Savannah River Site in South Carolina), it was common to have employees who lived across the river in Georgia. One of my friends (who lived in Georgia) said he had to file two state tax returns, and that our 2 states had an agreement on how to divvy up the income. Yes, pro athletes have a more complicated tax burden, but it's been known for ages. However, it's still good to remind the general public about how onerous taxes can become . . .
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I guess all Superbowls from now on will have to be played in Vegas?
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