Republicans have given basketball superstar Stephen Curry the honor of being the only person named in their newly released tax reform bill.
For whatever reason, the NBA’s most valuable player was called out in a section of the bill that proposes closing a specific tax loophole for the rich. Curry’s name started to trend on social media after Franklin Leonard, founder of the filmmaking network The Black List, tweeted the excerpt on Thursday.
″There is only one person mentioned in GOP tax plan and it’s Steph Curry,” Leonard captioned a photo of the excerpt.
Curry isn’t actually mentioned in the nearly 400-page bill itself but rather in a simplified explanation of the plan by the House Ways and Means Committee that is organized as a set of responses to common criticisms of the legislation.
The GOP unveiled the plan, which would largely benefit the economic elite with items such as estate tax elimination and corporate rate cuts, on Thursday morning. Curry was mentioned as an example of how it would close a loophole on the wealthy using a proposed 25 percent pass-through business income tax break.
“The ‘Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’ includes specific safeguards to prevent tax avoidance and help ensure taxpayers of all income levels play by the rules under this new fairer, simpler tax system. Our legislation will ensure this much-needed tax relief goes to the local job creators it’s designed to help by distinguishing between the individual wage income of NBA All-Star Stephen Curry and the pass-through business income of Steve’s Bike Shop.”
Essentially, the idea is that someone with an extremely high salary, such as Curry, couldn’t incorporate himself to benefit from a 25 percent tax break. Republicans are proposing a specific safeguard to make sure the cut will benefit legitimate business owners, such as the fictional Steve’s Bike Shop.
Curry jokingly responded to being called out in the plan on Twitter.
“I wonder if Steve’s Bike shop is hiring...,” the Golden State Warriors guard wrote.
Interestingly enough, Curry was one of the lowest-paid NBA athletes until he signed a new contract earlier this year.
The MVP had a $44 million, four-year deal with the Warriors, not including bonuses. Curry signed a new deal with the team in July that came out to $201 million over five years.
Twitter users criticized the odd inclusion of Curry in the tax cut information by noting that Republicans chose a wealthy black athlete to represent cheating the system. Some of have suggested that the motivation was to target racial tensions.