FOR PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES

7 Things Nobody Tells You About Professional Tax Filing Software Until You Owe 11 States at Once

(The App Your Business Manager Downloaded in April Is Not the Same Product)

A rookie found out the difference the hard way: an 11-state tax year, a $38,000 penalty notice, and three amended returns before he finished his second season. If you earn real money across a career window that might last four seasons or fourteen, the stakes are nothing like one W-2 and one state return every spring.

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Real accountants Flat monthly pricing Every away game mapped to a state

Phoenix · August 23, 2026 · 6 min read

One rookie. One consumer app.

states owed in a single tax year

“I had been filing the same way since my rookie year and just assumed the penalties were normal. Amadae found four states I had been under-filing in for two seasons. The refund from the correction alone covered more than a year of the service.”

NFL defensive back · Third season

The jock tax is real, and your old W-2 never warned you

Every state you play a game in can tax the income you earned that day, even if you live somewhere else entirely. Football players can owe returns in 10 to 15 states in a single season. Basketball and baseball players, with longer schedules, can hit 20 or more. A consumer filing app that only knows your home state and your team's state is missing most of them.

Do this today: Pull last season's schedule and count the states you played in. Compare it to how many state returns got filed.

State returns owed in one season

W-2 employee1

Football10 to 15

Basketball or baseball20 or more

Away-game states that can tax the income earned there

Signing bonuses get taxed like a completely different animal

Your salary and your signing bonus are not treated the same way, and depending on the state they may not even be sourced the same way. Bonuses are frequently taxed based on your state of residency at signing, not where you eventually play. A rookie who signs while living in a no-income-tax state and structures the timing correctly keeps meaningfully more. This is not a loophole, just a rule almost nobody explains before the ink dries.

Do this today: Before your next contract or extension, get in writing from your agent exactly where you will be a legal resident on the signing date.

Tennis match — Salary is sourced game by game. A bonus is often sourced to where you live on signing day. Two different rules, one contract.

Your agent's business manager is not a CPA

Business managers are excellent at paying your bills on time. Most are not licensed tax professionals, and fewer still specialize in multi-state athlete taxation. That gap is where six-figure mistakes live. My business manager files my taxes has cost more athletes more money than any bad contract ever will.

Do this today: Ask whoever files your taxes how many other professional athletes are on their client list right now. Fewer than five is your answer.

$38,000

penalty notice one second-round pick received fourteen months after a consumer app missed 9 away-game states.

Amadae review of one rookie's first return

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04AMADAE

Software built for a career that spans 15 jurisdictions a season

Generalist tools are built for one person, one state, one W-2. Amadae is tax software and service built for the opposite: it tracks every away game against the state where it happened, flags every jock tax filing before it is due, and keeps quarterly estimates aligned with a schedule that changes every few months. The rookie from card one was moved onto exactly this after his amended returns. He has not missed a state since.

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Built for one W-2 versus built for your schedule

	Consumer app	Business manager
Maps every away game to a state filing
Jock tax returns flagged before they are due	Home state only	If they know
Signing bonus sourcing planned before signing
Quarterly estimates for a changing schedule		Extra fee
Entity and Solo 401(k) setup around endorsements
Real accountants, flat monthly price		Percentage of income

Your off-season is actually your tax season

Summer feels like the reward, and it is. But July and August are the window when quarterly estimates, entity decisions, and residency planning either get handled or get ignored until they become a problem in the fall. Athletes who wait until January are always playing defense. The ones who plan in the off-season show up to camp with a clean picture instead of a stack of notices.

Do this today: Block two hours this month, before camp opens, to check current-year income against your state deadlines and confirm your next quarterly payment is calculated, not guessed.

Before camp opens

States played last season counted against returns filed
Residency on signing date confirmed in writing
September 15 estimate calculated, not guessed
Preparer has 5 or more athletes as clients
Waiting until January to open the notices

Your career has an expiration date. Your tax strategy needs one too.

The average professional sports career lasts a handful of seasons. A strategy built on the assumption that this income continues forever fails almost everyone. Retirement structures matter earlier than they would with a 40-year runway. A Solo 401(k) set up correctly around your entity and endorsement income shelters real money in your peak years instead of leaving it fully taxed now with nothing saved for later.

Do this today: Ask your advisor to show you, in writing, how much of this year's income is protected in a retirement structure. If it is zero, that is the next call.

BONUSAMADAE

Bonus: The intake that closes when training camp opens

Amadae is taking athletes who sign on before the September 15 quarterly deadline at the current rate: full setup of your multi-state filing system, entity review, and quarterly estimate calendar. No long-term contract, and if it is not a fit after your first quarter you walk with a state-by-state filing map you can hand to anyone. September 15 is the last clean checkpoint before the fall schedule gets chaotic. Spots are limited because onboarding a full multi-state history is real work on our side.

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NFL defensive back

Third season

Four under-filed states corrected, refund covered a year of service

One rookie. One consumer app.

states owed in a single tax year

away-game states the app missed entirely

$38,000

penalty notice, fourteen months later

amended returns before his second season ended

One athlete's first two seasons, with permission. Your numbers will differ.

Accounting built for a multi-state career

Books, payroll, and taxes from real accountants who map your schedule, for one flat monthly price starting at $249.

Every away game tracked against the state where it happened
Jock tax filings and quarterly estimates calendared before they are due
Signing bonus and residency planning before you sign
Entity, Solo 401(k), and year-end returns handled in one place

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No long-term contract. Cancel any time. The intro call is free.

Plans from

$249/mo

If you make $40K - $69K. Flat, no hourly bills.

Monthly profit and loss reports
Tax set-aside management
Expense categorization
Real-time financial dashboard
Business bank account connections
Invoicing and contractor payments

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Cancel any timeReal accountantsTaxes filed for you

Straight answers

Questions creators ask us

My business manager already handles this.+

Paying bills on time and filing 15 state returns correctly are different jobs. Ask how many other athletes they file for. If it is fewer than five, keep them for the bills and get a specialist for the returns.

I already owe penalties from past seasons. Can that be fixed?+

Often, yes. Amended returns in the states you under-filed can turn penalties into refunds, which is exactly what happened to the defensive back above. The intro call starts with last season's schedule.

Is this only for players on big contracts?+

No. The jock tax applies from the first away game whether you are a rookie on a minimum deal or a veteran. The dollar amounts scale; the filing obligations do not.

Do not let the wrong tool decide what you keep

You did the hard part by making the money. Thirty minutes with an athlete accountant will map last season's schedule to every state you owe, before your first away game.

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