{"id":995916,"date":"2026-09-09T08:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T08:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/995916\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T08:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T08:27:18","slug":"matthew-stafford-set-for-massive-1-25-million-tax-bill-over-la-rams-season-opener-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/995916\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Stafford set for massive $1.25 million tax bill over LA Rams season-opener in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The LA Rams’ season-opener against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne will cost Matthew Stafford a lot of money.<\/p>\n

The Rams and 49ers will play what will be the first-ever NFL game played on Australian soil, as they look to do battle at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.<\/p>\n

Matthew Stafford will be hoping to get off to a winning start for the season, especially considering how much money he is set to lose by playing in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Ric Tapia\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Matthew Stafford will only take home $947K of $2.2 million Week 1 salary<\/p>\n

Matthew Stafford will be paid $2.2 million for his Week 1 fixture against the San Francisco 49ers. However, he won’t take home even half that amount.<\/p>\n

Because the game is being played in Australia, Stafford will have to pay taxes because he is earning a salary on foreign soil.<\/p>\n

The tax to the Australian government is estimated to be close to $960,000, a little under half of what he will make in Week 1.<\/p>\n

But, of course, as someone working and residing in California, Stafford will also be liable to pay California state and federal taxes.<\/p>\n

Stafford will have to pay nearly $293,000 to the state of California, while paying an estimated $814,000 to the federal government \u2013 an amount partly offset by foreign tax credit.<\/p>\n

In total, Stafford is expected to pay a combined total of nearly $1.25 million in taxes out of his $2.2 million salary for Week 1.<\/p>\n

This leaves the reigning AP NFL MVP with close to $947,000. Now, given that Stafford just signed a one-year, $55 million extension with the Rams, losing this amount is hardly going to hurt him financially.<\/p>\n

But the taxes athletes have to pay tend to become a huge discussion point, as some fans use them to justify the massive contracts their teams sign with these players.<\/p>\n

The argument usually goes that the high-value contracts are designed to be this way to ensure these players make what they are worth even after paying taxes.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether that is the case or not, there is no denying that Stafford’s Week 1 salary tax would shock the average fan, but wouldn’t make a dent for the former Super Bowl winner.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LA Rams’ season-opener against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne will cost Matthew Stafford a lot of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":995917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[7,130631,4099,1014,58,2444,2611,32,6,424,252],"class_list":["post-995916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-rams","tag-football","tag-foreign-tax-credit","tag-la-rams","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesrams","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-nfl","tag-rams","tag-san-francisco-49ers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117240138916882191","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=995916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}