Stephen A. Smith says he was warned by his estate planners to leave California every weekend because the government would TRACK his phone calls, then uses that data to collect MORE taxes.

He thought they were kidding. Then he got his tax returns. They weren’t.

What’s happening here is the “jock tax” in effect, which is California’s way of collecting more money from entertainers and athletes based on days worked or spent in the state.

And here’s the disturbing part.

California’s tax collectors pull cell phone records to show where you were when you took your calls so they can prove you were still hanging out in Cali so they can hit you with another taxable day.

Smith got sick of Gavin Newsom taxing him to death and moved his ass out of California. He now lives in Florida.

SMITH: “I’m sitting down with my estate planners and all of that. And they said, ‘Look, when the weekend arrives, it would be in your best interest to go to Vegas or to Utah or something.’ I said, ‘Why?’ And they said, ‘Well, if you stay in California, you know, IRS, they ping your phone. So, anytime you get a call or you’re on the phone, they know that you’re in the state. And that counts as a tax day.’

“And I said, ‘You got to be kidding me.’ And sure enough, when I saw my tax returns, it was absolutely correct.”

This jock tax is not small money, either.

Shaquille O’Neal found that out the hard way. His first year with the Lakers, he signed for $20,000,000.

By the time taxes were done with it, his check came in at $10,900,000 for the year.

Then the jock tax took another $4,000,000.

And Shaq walked away with about $7 million out of the 20. Two-thirds of his paycheck went to taxes.

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