College Athlete Unions Raise Specter of Scholarship Tax Hit

Dartmouth College’s basketball team made waves across the college sports world when they voted to form a union, a move with potential tax consequences for student-athletes on scholarships seeking to follow in their footsteps.

The players at the Ivy League school voted to unionize with a local Service Employees International Union in March, just a month after a National Labor Relations Board regional director found students should be considered employees. Despite not receiving athletics scholarships, NLRB’s Laura Sacks found they were compensated through nearly $3,000 in equipment per person each season as well as tickets to games and events.

The ...