Sideline Wealth™

Keep more of what you earn.

NIL and revenue-share income is taxed harder than most athletes expect. See exactly what you keep — and the structure to keep more — with figures that are current, sourced, and built to survive a CPA's review.

The athlete

Annual NIL / revenue-share income$150,000
Months earning this year12
How the income is reported
Filing status
Home state
S-Corp salary to yourself$60,000
Deductible business expenses$5,000
Agent / management fee0%
Elect PTET (S-Corp pays state tax)
Reasonable-compensation check
40%Your salary is 40% of revenue — a defensible range for the W-2 salary an S-Corp owner pays themselves.
Figures use 2025 (as of 2025-07-04) federal and NC state rules. Out-of-state appearance income is modeled separately in the Multi-state section below.

Estimated annual savings, after costs

$8,403$9,903
kept per year vs. holding the income with no structure

The saving is structural, not a loophole. An S-Corp lets you take part of your pay as distributions instead of salary — and distributions skip the 15.3% Social Security + Medicare tax that a salary owes. The §199A deduction then trims federal tax on the business income.

Where it comes from
Self-employment tax saved+$11,308
Income tax & QBI effectiQBI is the §199A Qualified Business Income deduction — eligible business owners can deduct up to 20% of their business profit before federal tax. This line is the combined change in your federal and state income tax versus having no structure.+$95
Gross annual savings$11,403
Less S-Corp running cost (payroll + CPA)$1,500 to $3,000
Net kept, after costs$8,403$9,903
Total tax — no structure
$41,532
Total tax — with S-Corp
$30,129
Effective tax rate27.7% → 20.1%
Income counted this year$150,000
Monthly take-home$9,989
Projected cumulative net kept$42,999$48,999
Sum of net savings over 4 years, each year re-run with exact brackets as income grows.
Entity Setup AdvisorS-Corp

For service income in North Carolina, an S-Corp starts paying for itself — net of the ~$1,500–$3,000/yr running cost — above about $35,000/yr.

Typical setup: ~$500–$1,500 one-time · $1,500–$3,000/yr (payroll + CPA)
11/15
Strategy scorecard
Strong
Entity structure3/3
Reasonable comp3/3
Retirement (SEP)3/3
Deductions captured1/3
State optimization (PTET)1/3
Next best action: Capture more real, documented deductions (agent fees, home office, health).

Computed under 2025 (as of 2025-07-04) rules · estimate for planning, not tax advice.

The states you play in send a bill.

If this is the first time you're seeing this, you're not alone — it's the tax surprise that catches most athletes and families off guard. Here's how it works.

1
Where you earn counts
Play a game, make an appearance, or sign autographs in another state, and that state taxes the money you earned inside its borders — even if you live somewhere with no state income tax.
2
Days decide the split
States divide your income by how many days you worked in each one — “duty days.” More days in a state means more of your income is taxed there.
3
You're not taxed twice
Your home state gives you credit for the tax you already paid to other states, so the same dollar isn't taxed twice.
Home stateNo-tax states still owe tax on days worked elsewhere
days
State worked inDaysState tax
California$26,906 sourced · 9% of days
20 days
$2,146
New York$20,179 sourced · 6.7% of days
15 days
$1,184
Georgia$10,762 sourced · 3.6% of days
8 days
$557
Add a state worked in:
Total state tax owed
$3,887
Single-state model showed
$0
+$3,887 it would have missed

Duty-day allocation with a resident-state credit for taxes paid elsewhere. Illustrative — appearance schedules and state sourcing rules vary.

What it's worth to your firm

Savings are computed by the same engine your athletes see — no invented multipliers. Move the sliders for your book of business.

Athletes you advise50
Average NIL income / athlete$300,000
Assumes service income with a defensible ~40% salary. Royalty-heavy books save less; high earners and multi-state books save more.

Annual client tax savings you'd demonstrate

$1,091,150
≈ $21,823 per athlete, every year
Your plan: Agency
$24,000/yr
Platform payback
45×
The platform costs 2% of the savings you create.
Advisor
$3,600/yr
Solo agents & independent advisors
Your fit
Agency
$24,000/yr
Agencies, collectives, mid-size CPA & wealth firms
Enterprise
~$100,000/yr
CLA-tier firms · unlimited athletes, SSO, API, CSM

Always the law as it stands today.

Federal, state, and NCAA rules change constantly. Monitoring agents watch the primary sources; nothing reaches a plan until a human approves it.

Federal · liveIRS & SSA figures, traced to source
State · 50rates, brackets, conformity
NCAA · revenue sharecap, classification, clearinghouse
Human-approvedevery change reviewed before it's live