respond to First of all, great tale. A worker is at a baseball game and retrieves a history home run ball. This ball has an extreme amount of value because of its history. The worker returned the ball to the player. Therefore, this worker received and gave away a large gift and must be taxed for it right? Thankfully not. The IRS taxes all income. Income can be from many different approaches. Looking at the Glenshaw Glass Definition, income is when a taxpayer has undeniable accession to wealth, clearly realized, and when they have complete dominion. In this case, we are looking at the later: Complete dominion. Since this grounds keeper never intended to keep the baseball, then he would not be taxed for it