He’s a winner even in death.
George Steinbrenner’s demise yesterday occurred six months after the federal estate tax expired, potentially saving his wife and four children a $500 million tab — and essentially ensuring they can keep the Yankees.
The tax, a 45-percent hit that lapsed in January due to lawmaker bungling, is set to be renewed in 2011 at 55 percent. But the law’s expiration for this year has spared inheritors from the crippling death penalty.
Forbes last year estimated Steinbrenner’s net worth at $1.1 billion, meaning that had he lived till next year his kids would have faced $600 million in taxes – and the taxes are due in cash nine months after a person dies.
To raise that much money, his heirs likely would have been forced to sell the team or borrow massively.
But the Yankees are already heavily in debt due to loans used to build the team’s new stadium.
Steinbrenner is survived by his wife, Joan, sons Hank and Hal and daughters Jessica and Jennifer. He also has two sisters and numerous grandkids. No details of his will have been revealed.
His estate has other valuable assets, including the family’s prized Kinsman Stud Farm in Ocala, Fla., which generates as much as $5 million a year in revenue. Jessica serves as the farm’s general manager and Hank plays a role in the operation.
George also had interests in hotel, restaurant and construction concerns.
His home in Tampa is worth about $4 million, and he owns a $1.5 million house in Clearwater, Fla., a $1 million beach condo off Gasparilla Sound, which is near Fort Myers, and an $800,000 apartment in Culver, Indiana, where he, his father Henry and both sons attended military school.
But the Yankees are by far the estate’s top asset. George owned 55 percent of the Yankees, which includes the team, the YES network and the new stadium. It’s estimated to be worth $1.6 billion and considered the most valuable sports franchise in the world.
The decision about how to pay Uncle Sam almost certainly would have fallen to Hal Steinbrenner, who runs the team and makes all business and financial decisions related to the Yanks.
The children of other sports owners have been forced to sell to pay estate taxes, including the kids of former Miami Dolphins honcho Joe Robbie.
The repeal of the levy was a quirk of President Bush’s 2001 tax cuts and became widely debated in Congress as the tax-free year of 2010 loomed.
Many assumed that legislators would work out a compromise tax rate for 2010 but nothing was done to close the loophole.
There has been recent debate in Congress about imposing a tax retroactively, but it’s unclear what the rate might be or how any back taxes might be levied.
The result has been a windfall of savings for heirs of the ultra wealthy who died this year. Among them was billionaire Texas energy mogul Dan Daniels.
Forbes ranked Steinbrenner No. 341 last year among the nation’s richest individuals