Illinois latest state to move to exempt athletes’ NIL money from taxes; do other students have a claim?

For now, the latest NIL legislative arms race in college sports is centered around taxes.  

CBS Sports has obtained a draft version of a bill which is expected to be filed soon in the Illinois house of representatives that means the state joins Alabama and Georgia in exempting NIL money earned by college athletes from state income tax. 

The bill, sponsored by state representative Travis Weaver (who graduated from the University of Alabama as an undergrad), is an amendment to the state’s tax code and as currently written would begin in tax year 2027. 

“The nice thing about this is it’s not existing revenue, which I think makes it a lot easier,” Weaver said. “It’s hard to cut a tax when it’s something that you have been collecting and it’s baked into your budget, whereas this, we’ve never been taxing, NIL [income], not to mention that there hasn’t really been any, right? I mean, this is just such a wild, wild west.” 

Thirteen in-state schools play Division I men’s and women’s college basketball, while three (Illinois, Northern Illinois, and Northwestern) play FBS football. Weaver points to the knock-on effects of increasing the competitiveness of in-state school as something that has the potential to dwarf whatever tax revenue is missed out on by making athletes exempt from the 4.95% state income tax rate. He also cited enrollment increases that come when sports programs win as an added benefit. 

“The reality is, we’re going to collect more tax revenue when Illinois football is successful,” Weaver said. “We’re going to sell a heck of a lot more tee shirts and baseball caps, and we’re going to have more people staying in our hotels, and they go to the U of I for games. So I think we got to continue to be competitive in sports, and…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/illinois-latest-state-to-move-to-exempt-athletes-nil-money-from-taxes-do-other-students-have-a-claim/

Author : Richard Johnson

Publish date : 2025-02-20 15:07:00

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