LeBron James’ “$33 million” salary with the Cleveland Cavaliers was cut in half!

LeBron James is worth a billion now but he had to pay a hefty price. In Cleveland, he didn’t get half his salary, that’s over $16 million! 

There are two certainties in life, death, and taxes. The latter can hurt you a lot, ask any rich person and they will happily share the pain of taxes.

Ask LeBron James, who once got less than half his salary for a calendar year! Yes, you read that right, less than %50 of your annual income was cut, due to taxes. That must have hurt.

When LeBron moved from Cleveland, he wasn’t leaving behind the glorious sunny weather. He was also forfeiting his right to keep his money.

Florida does not have a state income tax, which meant he kept a fair portion of his earnings. However, when James moved back to Cleveland, he faced taxes, a lot of it.

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After federal taxes and state taxes, LeBron James took home only $16.7 million in 2018!

Boy, that one must hurt. It turns out that Cleveland has a whopping 6.5% as the state tax rate. Mr. James had to fork out another $2.1 million dollars. Ouch.

Even for a multi-millionaire like LeBron James, that one would have hurt his pockets. He was stripped of nearly $17 million.

The Cavs paid LeBron $33.2 million this season. We estimated how much he actually took home. Here’s our math. pic.twitter.com/Q18ZwI50Jx

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) June 4, 2018

After his move to Los Angeles, the deficit has climbed. Fortunately for LeBron, he has numerous endorsements. This year, his endorsements netted him roughly $100 million dollars. It’s good to be the King.

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