Obama's Plans To Tax The MLB Teams

Going once...going twice...signed by the major league baseball team willing to pay a signing bonus before December 31st.

That is what we might hear from baseball players' agents after they have considered the real possibility that Barack Obama's intention to hike the tax rate on the wealthiest Americans will impact their clients.

You see, the current minimum yearly salary for a big league player is $400,000. That puts the lowliest of bench warmers and pinch hitters into the top 1% of all wage earners in this great country. Obama campaigned on the promise of restoring the top income tax rate to 39.6%, the applicable level during the Clinton administration.

That minimum salary figure equals the increase in yearly taxes that will be paid by a major leaguer who makes $10,000,000 a year if the Obama tax plan becomes law. Incredible. So what's a super-agent to do in this first week of activity in the free agent market?

He has to devise a strategy to get major league clubs to pay some of a player's 2009 compensation prior to the end of 2008. The only way that can happen is in the form of a signing bonus and a quick negotiation before the end of the year.

This year I think he'll try to convince the clubs that it may be in their best interest as well as a tax advantage for them to characterize salary as a bonus.