Los Angeles Lakers to Pay NBA-High $29 Million in Luxury Taxes

Six NBA teams owe the NBA luxury-tax payments for last season’s payrolls, and according to ESPN, the Los Angeles Lakers have been slapped with the largest bill ($29,259,739) following a disastrous 2012-13 campaign: “The Lakers will be forced to pay nearly $30 million in luxury tax for a team that — thanks to a steady stream of injuries and L.A.’s well-chronicled chemistry problems — barely squeaked into the playoffs and will go down as one of the biggest underachievers in league history. The figures, distributed late Tuesday to the league’s 30 teams, reveal the Miami Heat ($13.35 million), Brooklyn Nets ($12.88 million), New York Knicks ($9.96 million), Chicago Bulls ($3.93 million) and Boston Celtics ($1.18 million) join the Lakers ($29.26 million) in facing tax bills for their 2012-13 payrolls. […] The NBA also announced its salary cap and luxury-tax threshold for 2013-14, when penalties for broaching it will be much steeper. Next season ushers in a more punitive scale for roster excess than seen during the first two seasons of the NBA’s labor agreement introduced in December 2011. The Nets, for example, are projected at this early juncture to have a tax bill in the $75 million range despite carrying a similar payroll of roughly $100 million to the Lakers of 2012-13. The tax amounts for last season were based on a dollar-for-dollar tax above the per-team threshold of $70.31 million. Fifty percent of the total tax of $70.57 million paid by the six teams will be used to fund revenue sharing for the 2012-13 season, according to the 2011 labor agreement. The remaining 50 percent will be distributed in equal shares to each non-taxpaying team. Sources said that each non-taxpaying team will thus receive 1/24th of $35.28 million, or $1.47 million per team. The six taxpaying teams, sources said, will receive an invoice by Monday and must remit their required payment by July 24. Escrow and tax distributions are scheduled to be made back to teams no later than July 29.”