IRS wants Tom Brady to pay up before gifting MVP truck to Malcolm Butler

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said he would love hand over the keys to his Super Bowl MVP truck to rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler, but the friendly gesture won't come cheap.

According to Ryan Ellis of Forbes, the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado is considered a taxable prize under section 74 of the Internal Revenue Code and would be taxed at Brady's marginal income tax rate of 39.6 percent.

Ellis has more:

According to TrueCar.com, the fair market value of a 2015 Chevy Colorado is in the neighborhood of $34,000.  This is likely an understatement, since it includes none of the options that Chevy no doubt added to the vehicle.

So Tom Brady will pay ($34,000 x 39.6 percent) in taxes, or $13,500 in income tax on this prize.

If Brady does decide to give the truck to Butler, he will have to pay gift tax on the transaction, as the tax code allows for a maximum of $14,000 to be given from one person to another before a donor level tax is assessed.

Assuming this will be Brady's only gift to Butler this year, the transaction sets up a taxable gift for Brady of $20,000 (the $34,000 value of the truck minus the $14,000 gift tax exclusion). Assuming Brady has made at least $5.25 million of taxable gifts up to this point in his life (a safe bet), he will owe a 40 percent gift tax on this $20,000 taxable gift. That's an $8,000 gift tax on top of a $13,500 income tax on the truck, for a combined federal tax hit of $21,500.

As Ellis points out, that total is more than half of the value of the truck. It's also a fraction of the $27 million in base salary he's scheduled to earn over the next three seasons, so he probably won't have an issue parting ways with the vehicle.