California Taxation of Visitors Is Not New Nor Unique to Professional Athletes
14th February 2026
In the days since the 2026 Super Bowl football game, I have seen several articles about players on the winning team having to pay California more in state income taxes than the bonuses the players received for winning the game. All because the players were in the state for ten or more days. Thus, according to California law, players owe California a proportion of their entire annual pay.
So?
This California visitor’s income tax is not new.
This California visitor’s income tax is not limited to highly paid athletes.
This California visitor’s income tax is a feature of California government stupidity.
And has been for a long time.
Although I grew up mostly in Southern California, in 2000 I moved to New York State for a job. Beginning in about 2010, a part of my job became supervising a couple of company offices in California. This required me to physically visit those offices a few times per year.
I kept careful track of how many days I spent in California for those visits. If those days accumulated to ten or more in a calendar year (which my employer would know, since travel was booked through the company’s travel program), I would owe California income taxes based on a proportion of my total annual income. And, because of its connections to California, my employer was obligated to track that information and to report it to the state. So, I made sure to keep my cumulative visits to the company’s California offices to fewer than ten days in a calendar year. Although I found the first half of December a beneficial time to travel for business, I sometimes skipped visits to the California offices lest I incur taxation by the state of California.
Democrats never saw a pocket that they didn’t want to pick.