Home field advantage - Why Florida's teams are among the most likely to benefit from the new tax law:
Bottom Line: There are two prominent reasons why people flock and we choose to live in Florida. The weather and the taxes (specially the lack of a state income tax). That's been a benefit for Florida's sports teams right along when attempting to lure top players to our area. That benefit will be substantially enhanced starting next year due to the changes in the new tax law. With state and local tax deductions being capped at $10,000 - those most impacted are the top income earners and spenders. For professional players playing in states with an income tax, especially top taxed states like California with a 13%+ top tax rate and New York (12%+), it could be worth millions in additional tax savings to move to one of the seven states without any income tax as they lose the ability to deduct those state taxes from their federal tax bill.
There are only seven states without any form of income tax:
- Alaska
- Florida
- Nevada
- South Dakota
- Texas
- Washington
- Wyoming
Clearly the three biggest winners will be Texas, Florida and Washington. The four cities with sports teams that are most likely to benefit are:
- Dallas
- Houston
- Miami
- Seattle
Clearly Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa could also substantially benefit from players that are motivated by retaining as much of their earnings as possible. The top three considerations of players according to agents are geography, perceived opportunity of success and yes money.