Just read that the guy who got it is selling the ball. According to the news article:
"The 21-year-old New York man said Tuesday he had no choice but to sell the ball - several people told him he would be taxed on the souvenir just for holding on to it."
Is this true? What would be the basis of the tax?
I recommend you see misc.taxes.moderated for a discussion that's been ongoing. FWIW, the IRS hasn't commented that I can find. JOE
This topic has been discussed to death on other places. See this article and the related comments.
Even experts can't agree.
The camp that does hold this view is based on "accession to wealth."
Let's go to precedent then. What happened the last time someone caught a valuable home run ball? Did the IRS tax him on possession, or after sale?
The actions of the IRS and the code of the IRS can be two separate things. It appears that the last time this was an issue (Maguire) they chose not to enforce their intereretation of "the code".
Like JOE said, misc.taxes.moderated is rounding the corner on 100 posts on this topic.
McGwire's potential 62nd home run was the one mentioned in the article. Indeed, that individual did give the ball to McGwire. There have been valuable balls since then, such as McGwire's 70th, Bonds's 71st, Bonds's 700th (lifetime). However, those were all sold at auction, so there wasn't any concern about unrealized value. At least one article about the recent ball indicated that the kid who caught it sold it due to fear of being taxed.
Brian
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