Darryl Strawberry still had one outstanding, unpaid contract with the New York Mets. But the IRS seized this last contracted payment the team owed the player because of his tax delinquency. Now, the tax agency is auctioning off the $1.28 million to the highest bidder to recoup those back taxes.
One of the provisions that Strawberry had in his 1990 contract was a delayed payment via an annuity now worth roughly $1.28 million. The player was scheduled to have gotten payments from the annuity starting in 2004 but first a divorce from his wife and then the intervention by the IRS put the annuity into a financial purgatory of sorts.
Now, with all the legal questions answered, the IRS has assumed ownership of the annuity and is putting the contracted payments up for auction in January.
On January 20, the IRS will auction off the rights to collect on the annuity payments which are allotted in 223 monthly installments. The bidding starts at $500,000, ESPN reported.
The IRS hopes to recoup the $600,000-plus of back taxes that Strawberry owes the federal government.
“Seizure and sale is the last thing we at the IRS want to do,” IRS spokesman Michael Devine said. “This happens when a person doesn’t dispute that they owe the money but can’t or won’t liquidate the property.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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