FOR PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES

I Found a $61,000 Tax Mistake in a Rookie's Contract. A CPA for S Corp Fixed It in One Meeting.

("Save 30% And Hope" Is Not A Tax Plan)

A CPA for S corp structuring does one job for athletes: it splits income that would otherwise be taxed twice into a reasonable salary and a distribution, and keeps the difference in your account. If you earn seven figures on a career clock measured in seasons, here is the exact fix, and the rookie contract that proved it.

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Real accountants Flat monthly pricing Every state you play in, filed

Phoenix · August 19, 2026 · 6 min read

One rookie contract. Real numbers.

$61,000

owed in April that nobody had budgeted

“I'd had three different accountants in five years. None of them had ever run a reasonable-salary calculation or gone line by line through my agent's invoices. Amadae found $61,000 I didn't know I was overpaying, in the first review.”

Anonymized client · NBA rookie contract, 2024

Your signing bonus is not taxed like your salary

Marcus signed a four-year, $9.2 million rookie deal with a $2.4 million bonus paid the week he inked. His agent said to expect about 37% withheld and move on. That 37% is the flat federal supplemental rate, and it has nothing to do with what he owed once state tax, agent fees, and his real bracket were reconciled. The following April he owed an extra $61,000 he had not budgeted.

Do this today: Before your next bonus lands, ask your accountant for a withholding reconciliation, not a withholding estimate.

Marcus's bonus, as the IRS saw it

Signing bonus, paid week one$2,400,000

Federal flat withholding at 37%$888,000

State tax and real bracket reconciled$0

Extra owed the following April$61,000

41 road games. 41 potential state filings.

Most athletes assume the team handles the jock tax. Teams withhold on the visiting state's estimate, which is rarely accurate, and reconciling 12 to 20 state returns a year is not something a generalist preparer volunteers to do carefully. Every day you practice or play in another state needs to be logged now, not reconstructed from memory in March.

Do this today: Start a road log today: date, city, state, game or practice. Keep it through the season.

Your agent's fee costs more than the invoice says

Standard agent fees run 3 to 4% of contract value, but standard does not mean audited. Marcus paid a flat 4% plus a separate 1.5% to a business manager, and nobody had cross-checked those invoices against services delivered. Fees are also treated differently depending on how you are structured: some are deductible against business income, most are not if you are a W-2 employee with no entity behind you.

Do this today: Pull 12 months of agent and advisor invoices and ask which fees are actually reducing your tax bill.

5.5%

of contract value going to an agent and a business manager, never cross-checked against work delivered

Marcus's invoices: 4% agent fee plus 1.5% business manager

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04AMADAE

What a CPA for S corp does with off-contract income

Endorsements, appearance fees, camps, and a signature shoe royalty can be routed through a loan-out entity that elects S corp status. You pay yourself a reasonable salary and take the rest as a distribution with no self-employment tax. On $400,000 of off-contract income that split alone saves five figures a year. Marcus kept an additional $34,000 in year one, on top of fixing the bonus withholding. Amadae handles the election, the reasonable-salary defense, the multi-state filings, and the books in one flat monthly price.

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Who handles what for an athlete

	Generalist preparer	The agent's guy
Loan-out S corp election and payroll		Extra fee
Reasonable-salary calculation that holds up
12 to 20 state jock tax returns	Extra fee
Agent invoices audited annually
Estimate recalculated as each check lands
Flat monthly price

19 of 22 athletes left $31,000 on the table

Marcus's story is the default, not the exception. We reviewed the returns of 22 professional athletes this year and 19 had left an average of $31,000 behind through structures exactly like his: no entity behind off-contract income, no salary calculation, no multi-state plan. The three who were fine had one thing in common: someone who specialized in athlete income had walked them through it.

Do this today: Ask whoever manages your money one question this week: if my career ended tomorrow, would my tax structure still be working for me?

22 professional athletes reviewed this year

Left money on the table, avg $31,00019 athletes

Structured correctly3 athletes

Amadae athlete tax return reviews, this year

"I'm saving 30%" is a guess, and summer is spending season

Set aside 30%, maybe 35%, and hope it covers what is owed: that is the plan most athletes run. A flat percentage does not flex when your bracket shifts with every bonus and endorsement check, and summer is when the house, the car, and the trip all land at once. A real quarterly estimate, recalculated as income arrives, is the difference between a plan and a guess.

Do this today: Before your next big summer purchase, get a real number for what you owe on income received this quarter.

Tennis match — The average pro career lasts three to seven years. That is the whole window to build wealth that has to last five decades.

BONUSAMADAE

Bonus: Fix it before camp, not after the next $61,000

Three accountants in five years and none of them had run a reasonable-salary calculation or read the agent's invoices. That silence costs more than any invoice. The structure Amadae builds keeps paying you back every season your income changes, every bonus that hits, and every state you play in. The intro call is free and there is no long-term contract.

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Anonymized client

NBA rookie contract, 2024

Found $61,000 in the first review

One rookie contract. Real numbers.

$61,000

owed in April that nobody had budgeted

$34,000

kept in year one from the S corp split

road games, each a potential state filing

19 of 22

athletes reviewed had left money on the table

One client, anonymized, plus Amadae athlete return reviews this year. Your numbers will differ.

Accounting built for a career with a clock on it

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

Loan-out S corp election with a reasonable-salary defense
Multi-state jock tax returns filed every season
Quarterly estimates recalculated as each check lands
Agent and advisor invoices reviewed against your return

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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 playing contract is W-2. Can it go through an S corp?+

No. Teams pay players directly and that income stays fixed. The election applies to endorsements, appearances, camps, and royalties, which is where the $34,000 in Marcus's case came from.

My agent already has an accountant for me.+

Ask that accountant when they last ran a reasonable-salary calculation or audited the agent's own invoices. If the answer is never, that is the gap. Many athletes start with a review of last year's return and decide from there.

How fast can this be set up before camp?+

The election, payroll, and a road log can be in place in weeks, not months. The sooner it is filed, the more of this season's off-contract income it protects.

Don't spend another season guessing what you keep

Thirty minutes with an accountant who specializes in athlete income. Your contract, your endorsements, your road schedule, deal by deal.

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