Many thanks to Haskell Murray and the Business Law Prof Blog editorial crew for inviting me to serve as a guest blogger during the final countdown to 2017.  For the next few weeks, I’d like to share some of my research in the areas of amateur sports and tax.

Like many, I am an avid enthusiast of the Olympics.  During the 2012 Summer Games in London which highlighted extraordinary athletic prowess from the likes of Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, and the all-impressive gold medal beach volleyball duo Ross and Kessy, Marco Rubio introduced Bill S.3471 (The Olympic Tax Elimination Act (OTEA)) which proposed to exclude from U.S. Olympic athletes’ gross income the value of any prizes or awards won during the Games.  

This bill piqued my interest in exploring the tax issues facing U.S. Olympic medal-winning athletes.  In 2013, my Central Michigan sports law colleague Adam Epstein and I published Taxing Missy: Operation Gold and the 2012 Proposed Olympic Tax Elimination Act, which explores general tax issues within sports, investigates the U.S. Olympic Committee’s (USOC) Operation Gold program (awarding $25K for gold, $15K for silver, and $10K for bronze medals won at the Olympics by U.S. athletes), analyzes…