jock tax

Type: Concept

As of November 2026, jock tax has been mentioned in 2 episodes across 2 podcasts, first heard Feb 2026 on Morning Wire. Podcasts mention the jock tax to highlight its financial impact on professional athletes, particularly during events like the Super Bowl. In the Morning Wire episode, it was noted that "Super Bowl athletes may be going home in the red due to the California jock tax." Similarly, the PBD Podcast discussed how athletes face additional taxation because of where the game is played, specifically referencing California's jock tax.

In the United States, the jock tax is the colloquially named income tax levied against visitors to a city or state who earn money in that jurisdiction. Since a state cannot afford to track the many individuals who do business on an itinerant basis, the ones targeted are usually high profile and very wealthy, namely professional athletes. Not only are the working schedules of famous sports players public, so are their salaries. The state can compute and collect the amount with very little investm