With NIL Money Comes an Inescapable Fact: Taxes Are Owed

College athletes last July finally got the right to make money off their name, image and likeness (NIL). They also won something else: the headache of filing and paying taxes.

“Tax day could be a rude awakening for a lot of college athletes,” said Peter Schoenthal, an attorney and founder of Athliance, which provides NIL management software and consulting to athletic departments including the universities of Kansas and Arizona. “You have students who have gone from July 1 to December 31 making thousands of dollars that didn’t put a penny as aside for taxes. They’re going to be put on tax liens.”