9 replies to this topic

[camay2327]

You must be kidding....

 

The U.S. Senate may — and should — review the NFL’s tax-exempt status

Recently, you may have heard that the Internal Revenue Service came under some considerable fire for targeting certain groups seeking tax-exempt status while green-lighting others (such as one run by the brother of President Obama), but did you know that the National Football league, an organization that currently rakes in about $10 billion per year in revenue, is also a non-profit organization in the eyes of the government? While you're trying to figure that one out, we've got another one for you. Did you know that the league has been a non-profit organization since 1966, when the NFL merged with the American Football League, and then-commissioner Pete Rozelle folded in the request for an exemption with the request for an anti-trust exemption?

 

// go to below web site for the rest //

 

http://sports.yahoo....-004521453.html

 

 

 

[TruthSeeker]

Wow! If they are a non-profit, I'm the pope!

At some point the NFL must have promised that all the players etc would vote for a certain political party and that's how and why they got exempted.

[Darth Lefty]

The NCAA is far worse a lie and an abuse, since they exploit students.  So attack them first.

[folsom500]

Football is a religion to millions you know ...

[SacKen]

This is very misleading. Those revenue numbers are a total of all the team revenues, not the parent organization that coordinates their operations. The teams are independent companies and pay taxes on their earnings. So the NFL does not "rake in $10 billion". Each individual company has revenue of about $200-500 million that is taxed like a normal corporation, for a total of about $10 billion in taxable revenue. Even things like TV revenue is split amongst the teams and is not revenue for the non-profit NFL. The actual revenue for the tax-exempt NFL is mostly just franchise fees and is around $200 million gross. The unpaid taxes are really those fees that are deducted from the teams' books since it is technically a donation to a non-profit.

 

That said, we should eliminate the whole tax-exempt sham, along with the rest of the tax code and personal deduction-based model. If they operate like a normal organization and have no profits, then little or no taxes would be due anyway since taxable income is zero. So the net effect is about the same without all the hassle.

[SacKen]

It's only partly misleading.  The NFL considers itself a "trade organization" made up of the legaue's 32 teams.  Yes - each team is taxed individually on its earnings.

 

But - because the NFL is a 501©(3), it is able ot sell bonds at reduced rates and it then turns around and lends that money to the various teams to build stadiums and whatnot.

 

All-in-all - it is a sham.

 

True, but the point is that the $10 billion is owned by taxed corporations and is not tax exempt, as the stories make it out to be. I've seen a bunch of articles about this and none of them talk about things like discounted bonds, nor does the congressdope raising a stink mention it. The premise is always that $10 billion dollars is going untaxed, which is misleading at best. I don't think discounted bonds are what upsets the blogointerwebtubes.

[titusan]

NFL is not a ©(3), it's a ©(6) - a trade association, not a charity.  That means the NFL doesn't pay income tax on it's dues income, but it may pay income tax on other types of income, and donations to it are not tax deductible like charitable donations are.  May involve some business deduction for the teams.

[tgianco]

I have a much bigger problem with Apple's tax scam. The NFL creates SOOOOOO much money in this country, people should be thankful. How much business does the Super Bowl generate? Who benefits? Restaurants, grocery stores, party supply stores, food companies, food and alcohol distributors, Vegas, sports books, bars... I'm sure I am missing quite a few others.

 

In what way does Apple provide the same benefits? Um, in no way.

 

I'll say this... what's good for the NFL is, in general, good for the country... (caveat: in no way do i support holding a team's fans/ general public hostage for a new stadium).

[The Average Joe]

Apple's tax "scam" is what ANY smart company would do when faced with the byzantine, punitive and ridiculous tax system we have. CONGRESS is responsible for that mess. 74,000 pages to figure out? Puhlease. Make it a straight percentage WITHOUT the 74,000 pages of exceptions written for various friends of congress over the years. My only fear would be that they would make the percentages arbitrarily high to support their spending addiction.