apnews.com/article/nhl-taxes-free-agency-a4a3280db7a7f4147301ccebfc3f41a7
NHL free agency shows teams in states with no income tax have an advantage
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Didn't Alan Walsh come out a few years ago and talk about how this wasn't nearly as big of a deal as it was made out to be, and that there are all these loopholes that effectively means most athletes with good advice pay very little tax
A few years ago, the paystub of an MLB player leaked. You can see the image here . The first thing to note is that players pay taxes to the locality they're playing in (so-called "Jock Tax"). The second thing is that they play games in Florida and the difference between taxes in Florida and taxes in Illinois on $56,000 earnings in both states is a whopping $2000. It really isn't that much.
Everyone likes to talk about how you don't pay any income tax in some states but they completely ignore how little state income tax you actually pay. Most income tax is federal and you're paying that in every state regardless of their own tax laws.
Now compare to canada
I just punched 8.5M into an illinois tax calculator and a quebec tax calculator and you keep $771,000 extra playing in illinois
Now how much do they save not paying for American health insurance plans as a professional hockey player in Canada?
Also take subsidized childcare and lower COL (because Montreal is affordable relative to many other US & Canadian metropolitan areas) into consideration as well and I'm sure the cost differential isn't actually as large as $771,000.
I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not to think that health care (covered by the team), subsidized childcare (that an NHL player would not qualify for or not even considered because NHL players are likely sending their kids to private school) and Montreal being a lower cost of living would somehow come anywhere close to $771,000.
Healthcare is covered by the team, also there’s no way in which an NHLer would be using the shitty Canadian healthcare system.
Did you read the article? Toronto is very comparable to NYC or CA.