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Posted By: Max Weder

From a legal point of view, I'd been interested from David in hearing why he thinks MLB's thoughts are determinative of ownership of the ball. If I recall correctly (which is perhaps dubious), the home team must purchase baseballs from MLB. Title of the ball would rest with the Red Sox, unless it is lost by some means. Certainly custom and practice play a great part here in determining if ownership has passed to Doug.

However, since I am not qualified to comment on the law of personal property in MA and only practice tax law (and in Canada I must add), to me, the more interesting (okay, not really) question is whether the IRS could assess him a taxable benefit by acquiring this very valuable ball by virtue of his employment. Any tax lawyers have any thoughts?

Max