The Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks are in for a hefty California tax bill following their 29-13 drubbing of the New England Patriots on Sunday, with some players expected to pay more in taxes than their Super Bowl earnings.
Each Seahawks player receives an individual bonus of $178,000 as negotiated by the NFL Players Association, while Patriots players will each receive $108,000.
Both Super Bowl teams are subject to California’s notorious “Jock Tax” imposed on out-of-state professional athletes, which will tax both respective teams on income from the eight “duty days” spent practicing and playing in the Golden State.
Jeffrey Degner, a research fellow in economics at the American Institute for Economic Research, told FOX Business that this tax alone will cut the average player’s Super Bowl bonuses in half at a minimum — without even taking into account additional state and federal taxes.
&#8220;What that means here is that the winning team, their take-home pay will be approximately $86,000. If you&#8217;re on the losing side, the take-home would be about $49,800,&#8221; Degner <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/super-bowl-lx-players-lose-thousands-californias-jock-tax-athlete-income">told</a> FOX Business.
Each “duty day” includes any day spent in California practicing, participating in team meetings, traveling, playing in a game, or doing media events. The state taxes each player by applying the ratio of their duty days in the state to their total duty days overall, then claiming that share of the player’s income.
&#8220;The players have a really complex tax situation where they can have 10 or more different states that they&#8217;re having to file taxes for,&#8221; Degner said. &#8220;This is why a lot of these young players, it&#8217;s really important for teams to settle them in with sharp financial advisors and tax advisors so that they don&#8217;t lose their shirts, so to speak.&#8221;
Sport business reporter Kurt Badenhausen <a href="https://www.sportico.com/law/analysis/2026/patriots-seahawks-super-bowl-2026-california-taxes-1234883101/">estimates</a> that Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, with 8+ duty days taxed out of his massive three-year, $105 million deal with Seattle and a $178,000 bonus, will pay $249,000 in California state taxes.
Stanford University Finance Professor and Hoover Institution Fellow Joshua Rauh commented on the numbers, sarcastically complimenting California&#8217;s tax system for ensuring the &#8220;incentive to win is preserved&#8221; by taxing the Super Bowl loser more than the winner.
&#8220;If his team wins, Darnold will receive $178k and pay $249k to California in taxes for his time here, losing $71k. If his team loses he gets $103k and still pays over $235k in taxes, losing $135k. I presume California is declaring victory, as his incentive to win is preserved,&#8221; Rauh <a href="https://x.com/joshrauh/status/2020208377515941905?s=20">quipped</a>.
California has the highest state income tax rate in the nation, while several states with NFL stadiums — including Tennessee, Texas, and Florida — impose no income tax on their residents or visitors, leading many to question whether future Super Bowls should be held in California.

Newsom/Lombardi

California Taxes Could Cost NFL Stars More Than Their Entire Super Bowl Paychecks

California Taxes May Cost NFL Stars More Than Their Entire Super Bowl Paychecks

California

Income tax

Sports

Super Bowl

Taxes

President Trump is apparently pushing for a higher tax rate. That’s a nonstarter.
The tax regime that President Trump put into place in his first term, his tax cuts, were a boon to the economy. They actually disproportionately benefited people who were middle and lower class. Revising the tax regime to pay for more loopholes and tax breaks in particular areas by increasing taxes on the highest income earners will sink investment capital. That&#8217;s what it does.
As somebody who has been in most tax brackets at one point in my life, I can tell you I will invest less if I have less money to invest. That&#8217;s true for everyone who is a high net earner. Increasing the income tax on the top income tax bracket in order to pay for more useless government spending — because nobody has the actual guts to say in American politics that we spend too much on our social welfare programs, which we do, particularly our means tested social welfare programs — will break the American economy.
It&#8217;s like shifting deckchairs on the Titanic.
Increasing the marginal tax rate at the top by 2% or something similar is not going to save anything. If the Republican Party is now the tax-raising party and the tariff party, we will have to see how that works out for them at the polls.
I do not think it is going to work out particularly well.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2196-member-exclusive?elementPosition=3&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
According to some reports, President Trump is privately urging speaker Mike Johnson to raise the top tax rate and close the so-called “carried interest loophole.”
You hear about the “carried interest loophole” all the time. Very often the media will use a term and call it a loophole when it&#8217;s not a loophole at all. Here’s an example: They will refer to a “gun show loophole,” claiming that if you&#8217;re a federally licensed firearms dealer, you can just go to a gun show and sell a gun randomly, which is not true. They say the “gun show loophole” means a private person who sells a gun to his friend doesn&#8217;t have to necessarily go through all of the federal background check, which just means that if you are a federally licensed firearms dealer and you&#8217;re a private individual, that these rules don&#8217;t apply to you in the same way.
So what is the “carried interest loophole”? Is it a loophole at all? What is carried interest? “Carried interest” works like this: Fund managers typically receive two forms of compensation. If you work at hedge fund or in private equity or venture capital, you have two forms of being paid.
One is a management fee, which is just income. You simply get paid a flat fee to handle people&#8217;s portfolios.
Then there&#8217;s the so-called “carried interest,” which is a share of the fund&#8217;s profits. The fund makes a profit; you get a share of the profit. But in order for it to qualify for capital gains tax as opposed to income tax, the underlying investments have to be held for more than three years.
Management fees are taxed at the regular income rate; carried interest is taxed as the long-term capital gain at a maximum rate of 20% if the underlying investments are held for more than three years.
So here is the question. If you have a share of the profits, isn&#8217;t that more like owning a stock? That&#8217;s the reason why it&#8217;s not treated as a form of typical income. It&#8217;s more like selling a stock because you actually are getting a share of stock that was profitable and then it was sold. Thus it&#8217;s more like a capital gain than it is like income.
Now you can make an argument that capital gains should be taxed the same as income. But stop pretending that the “carried interest loophole” is a form of normal income that&#8217;s getting carved out for hedge fund managers. That&#8217;s not what it is.
This populist leftist economic policy for heavy trade restrictionism for the sake of trade restrictionism as a subsidy to particular areas of the American economy added to higher tax rates, and I&#8217;m wondering what the difference is between that economic policy per se and leftist Democrat senator Sherrod Brown&#8217;s economic policy when he was senator from Ohio.
That is not the economic policy that President Trump enacted in his first term that was so wildly successful in increasing the earnings of everybody from the bottom part of the spectrum to the top part of the spectrum.
This would be a mistake.

Trump Hails The Election Of First US Pope As A ‘Great Honor’

Why Raising The Top Tax Rate Is A Recipe For Economic Decline

Ben Shapiro

Economy

Federal Government

Opinion

President Trump

Wealth Tax

Welfare

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) chose April 15 — better known to most American adults as Tax Day — to play defense for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and her efforts backfired in spectacular fashion.
Spanberger, who is currently facing Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears (R-VA) in the 2025 gubernatorial race, took to X to post her &#8220;Happy Tax Day&#8221; message attacking President Donald Trump and his administration.
&#8220;Just a reminder that while Virginians are filing their taxes, the Trump administration is cutting IRS staff and making it harder for people across the Commonwealth to get the help they need,&#8221; she posted.
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Happy Tax Day.
Just a reminder that while Virginians are filing their taxes, the Trump Administration is cutting IRS staff and making it harder for people across the Commonwealth to get the help they need.<a href="https://t.co/mO2RBcBlB0">https://t.co/mO2RBcBlB0</a>
&mdash; Abigail Spanberger (@SpanbergerForVA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpanbergerForVA/status/1912134139844657367?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Sears was among those who responded to Spanberger&#8217;s post, saying, &#8220;You just can’t make this up. Only a DC politician like @SpanbergerforVA would defend the IRS on Tax Day AFTER voting to hire 87,000 agents to wring every dollar out of you.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You just can’t make this up.
Only a DC politician like <a href="https://twitter.com/SpanbergerForVA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpanbergerForVA</a> would defend the IRS on Tax Day AFTER voting to hire 87,000 agents to wring every dollar out of you. <a href="https://t.co/XSp3FRDEHk">https://t.co/XSp3FRDEHk</a>
&mdash; Winsome Earle-Sears (@winwithwinsome) <a href="https://twitter.com/winwithwinsome/status/1912140383967997972?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;We went to war to overthrow tyrants like you,&#8221; radio host Dana Loesch said, adding, &#8220;F every last shred of misplaced sympathy for extortionists who steal from the American public.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
F every last shred of misplaced sympathy for extortionists who steal from the American public.
&mdash; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1912165696827425134?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Twitchy&#8217;s PolitiBunny added, &#8220;Abi, are you seriously praising the IRS &#8230; on tax day? Jeezus, lol. ROFL. LMAOROFL. I&#8217;m taking a screenshot of this one, this is so bad. Wow.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Abi, are you seriously praising the IRS &#8230; on tax day? Jeezus, lol.
ROFL.
LMAOROFL.
I&#39;m taking a screenshot of this one, this is so bad. Wow. <a href="https://t.co/kfQKlcEHo6">https://t.co/kfQKlcEHo6</a>
&mdash; The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) <a href="https://twitter.com/PolitiBunny/status/1912142424349999211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Just a reminder that Ronald Reagan once observed that: &#8216;Republicans celebrate the 4th of July, Independence Day. Democrats celebrate April 15, tax day,'&#8221; Newsmax writer Michael Dorstewitz posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Just a reminder that Ronald Reagan once observed that:
&quot;Republicans celebrate the 4th of July, Independence Day. Democrats celebrate April 15, tax day.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/ITEED4qyi3">https://t.co/ITEED4qyi3</a>
&mdash; Michael Dorstewitz (@MikeDorstewitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeDorstewitz/status/1912196712027894009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I’ve been filing taxes for 38 years and never once had a IRS staff member assist me, on, after, or prior to tax day,&#8221; another pointed out.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I’ve been filing taxes for 38 years and never once had a IRS staff member assist me, on, after, or prior to tax day. <a href="https://t.co/uKafXOJx0d">https://t.co/uKafXOJx0d</a>
&mdash; Rob O&#39;Donnell (@odonnell_r) <a href="https://twitter.com/odonnell_r/status/1912184360054202875?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;How does the IRS staff help citizens of Virginia in need?&#8221; Scottie Nell Hughes asked. &#8220;The IRS doesn&#8217;t prepare or file taxes. It does target small businesses with expensive and time-wasting audits. I think you meant to say the Social Security Administration, but facts don&#8217;t matter as long as you are trying to demonize Trump, right?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
How does the IRS staff help citizens of Virginia in need? The IRS doesn&#39;t prepare or file taxes. It does target small businesses with expensive and time-wasting audits. I think you meant to say the Social Security Administration, but facts don&#39;t matter as long as you are trying… <a href="https://t.co/calW1jbFJ3">https://t.co/calW1jbFJ3</a>
&mdash; Scottie Nell Hughes (@scottienhughes) <a href="https://twitter.com/scottienhughes/status/1912183662109503551?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I love it when Democrats are &#8216;on message,'&#8221; radio host Larry O&#8217;Connor said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I love it when Democrats are &quot;on message&quot; <a href="https://t.co/AZGbNgbo8y">https://t.co/AZGbNgbo8y</a>
&mdash; L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) <a href="https://twitter.com/LarryOConnor/status/1912161088520478732?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Democrats: &#8216;How can we win back the working class?'&#8221; Doug Powers asked. &#8220;&#8216;Aggressively defend the IRS on tax day?&#8217; &#8216;Brilliant!'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Democrats: “How can we win back the working class?”
“Aggressively defend the IRS on tax day?”
“Brilliant!” <a href="https://t.co/d9mkMKqaRL">https://t.co/d9mkMKqaRL</a>
&mdash; Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThePowersThatBe/status/1912146455973814518?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate Abigail Spanberger Speaks At An Everytown For Gun Safety Rally

Virginia Democrat Picks The Wrong [Tax] Day To Praise The IRS

Donald Trump

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Politics

Winsome Sears

President Donald Trump suggested during a Fox Noticias exclusive interview that the revenue from tariffs could eventually be high enough that it could fully replace the income tax.
In addition to increasing American production and rebalancing trade relationships with foreign nations, President Trump explained that it&#8217;s possible that tariffs could bring in enough revenue to render income tax unnecessary.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &quot;There is a chance that the money from tariffs could be so great that it would replace&quot; the income tax. <a href="https://t.co/SCBIOPD4zZ">pic.twitter.com/SCBIOPD4zZ</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1912127961098055703?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Will the tariffs replace income tax?&#8221; the host bluntly asked.
&#8220;You know, you&#8217;re the only one that&#8217;s asked me that,&#8221; Trump remarked. &#8220;I deal with all these big financial geniuses, nobody ever asked — there is a chance that the money from tariffs could be so great that it would replace —&#8221;
&#8220;You know, in the old days, 18 — 1870 to 1913 — the tariffs were the only form of money [coming in to the federal government], and that&#8217;s when our nation was relatively the richest,&#8221; Trump continued. &#8220;We were the richest.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s recent implementation of &#8220;Liberation Day&#8221; tariffs has set off a chain of events from mass panic on Wall Street and across media outlets to now, according to the Trump administration, at least 130 nations coming to the negotiating table in order to reach trade agreements that benefit everyone.
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/from-tariffs-to-talks-trump-adviser-reports-130-countries-now-seek-a-deal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more and more countries</a> reach out to the administration to negotiate better trade deals, Trump declared a good faith pause in the reciprocal tariffs — 90 days for the majority of those impacted — while talks take place. The major exception to that pause is China, after Beijing retaliated with higher tariffs instead of calling for negotiations. Trump also doubled down, increasing the tariffs on Chinese imports to a total of 145%.
Despite continued turmoil in the markets — largely due to the uncertainty wrought by the tariffs&#8217; unknown impact on the economy — Trump has urged calm and has predicted that tariffs will provide the necessary leverage to bring the United States into a stronger economic position than before.

Trump: Tariff Revenue Could Replace Income Taxes

Tariffs

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick revealed that when he asked President Donald Trump if the federal government could eliminate income taxes on all Americans making less than $150,000 a year if the Trump administration could balance the budget, Trump answered, “Sure.”
Lutnick appeared on the “All In” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@allin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">podcast</a>, where he spoke about balancing the budget before speaking of Trump and income taxes.
“I’m in the car with him and I said we’re going to balance the budget,’ Lutnick recalled. “And I said, ‘But I have one favor to ask you: If we can balance the budget for you, will you agree to waive all income tax for every person who makes less than $150k a year in the United States of America?’ Which, by the way, is about 85% of Americans. And the reason you want to work for Donald Trump is he looks at me, he goes, ‘Sure.’ You realize, the President of the United States said, ‘If you balance the budget, sure.’ And he’s not lying; he’s not kidding. He’s like, ‘Yeah.’”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Commerce Secretary <a href="https://twitter.com/howardlutnick?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@howardlutnick</a> says eliminating income taxes is a real possibility👀
&quot;I&#39;m in the car with [<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>] &#8230; I said &#39;I have one favor to ask you, if we can balance the budget for you, will you agree to waive all income taxes for every person who makes less… <a href="https://t.co/aDnXcY2KbN">pic.twitter.com/aDnXcY2KbN</a>
&mdash; Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1903074178938413542?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Lutnick launched into a history tour to explain how tariffs had worked in the past:
<blockquote>
America was built on tariffs with no income tax. No income tax until 1913. None, greatest, richest country in the world. So when Donald Trump says, “Make America Great Again,” what he’s talking about is from 1880 to 1913, when the country had so much money that we had blue-ribbon commissions to try to figure out how to spend the money. And no income tax. Then we put in the income tax in 1913. Why? Because we’re entering World War I, and don’t we all need to contribute to protect democracy and protect our way of life?
Then what happens is the world goes into chaos; we come out of chaos, and then we’re starting to think, “Well, what do we do? What do we do?” And then in 1929 the stock market crashes. By 1933, we start to say, “Oh, whoa, whoa, God, we forgot. We need to do tariffs.’” 1933? How can you do tariffs when the market’s crashed, the world’s going into depression and you’re going to do tariffs in 1933. You can’t charge the rest of the world money unless the rest of the world’s okay. So it was too little, too late.
So then we come out of World War II. It’s 1945; we need to rebuild the world. So we decide we’re going to take our tariffs down, and we’ll let them — here’s the key — let them have tariffs be up and we will export the power of our economy to let them rebuild. And we let them rebuild. And that’s what happened. So in 1945 we have the Marshall Plan; and we do it in Japan, of course, cause they need to be rebuilt. What’s the difference. They need to be rebuilt.
And then what happens is we have the fifties, and we have the Korean War. So we let them rebuild, which means we have low tariffs here, high tariffs there. Then we have the Vietnam War. So now all of a sudden we have all of Southeast Asia. Low tariffs here, high tariffs there.
You know what’s the best example I can give you to make it crystal-clear? Kuwait. We spent almost $100 billion freeing Kuwait. You know who had the highest tariffs against the United States of America? The number one country with the highest tariffs against the United States of America? Kuwait.
</blockquote>

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick

Lutnick: Trump Said If We Balance The Budget, No Income Tax On Earners Making Less Than $150K

Department of Commerce

Executive