PLEASE phone your congressfolk, TELL them to kill the NFL's NonProfit tax status!!

[peacebird]

The NFL is a multibillion dollar property... To still have Nonprofit status with the IRS is ridiculous. Let them pay taxes. Frame it as a way to help reduce the deficit without gutting public services.

[Sissyk]

1. What?

All 32 teams pay taxes on all sales and income. All players pay taxes. The only entity exempt from paying taxes is the League Office, the Office that writes the rules, hires the refs, and pushes safety issues.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

2. it's a common misconception... n/t

[Brickbat]

3. I wish I could rec your post.

[peacebird]

4. NPR just hosted a segment on it, here's an excerpt

It's a scandal that I can't understand why people aren't marching in the streets over, I suppose. The headquarters of the National Football League is chartered as a nonprofit — and treated by the IRS as a nonprofit — due to a few key words that were slipped into a piece of legislation 50 years ago. The individual teams probably pay corporate income taxes, but we don't know since most of them don't disclose any figures. Most of them receive public subsidies but don't disclose anything. The top of the NFL — Roger Goodell, the commissioner — his $30-million-a-year paycheck comes from what looks on paper to be a tax-exempt philanthropy.

... Judith Grant Long, a researcher at Harvard, calculates that 70 percent of the cost of NFL stadia has been paid for by taxpayers. In general, the public subsidizes pro football to the tune of around $1 billion a year, is what I calculated in my book. And yet it's phenomenally profitable — subsidized up one side, down the other, and yet a very profitable business.
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/24/225775287/nfls-a-nonprofit-author-says-its-time-for-football-reform

[Sissyk]

5. It's the NFL Office (Headquarters) that are

not taxable. They do not receive income from any type of sale. If I'm not mistaken, the IRS audited them (The Trade Organization) and found they were completely in compliance. They (IRS) stated that since ALL NFL Teams paid taxes on all sales and income, and that the Trade Organization did not receive any of it, they were fully in compliance.

The Tennessee Titans brings in more jobs than any other industry in our state, I'd guess. So, No. I won't be calling my Congressmen or Senaors to stop that.

[peacebird]

7. Doubt it. Do the titans bring in more that 6k jobs ?

Tennessee won a top ranking for capital investment and new jobs generated through company expansions and relocations, besting rival Texas and reclaiming a distinction it has not held since 2009.

The state attracted $3.2 billion in capital investment and attracted 6,900 new jobs from its five largest new projects, garnering the “2013 State of the Year” honor from economic development magazine Business Facilities. The ranking was based on the state’s top projects in investment and job creation in the 13 months through October, which included Hankook Tire Co.’s new plant in Clarksville and Aramark’s new $20 million Nashville facility.

Tennessee Economic Community and Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty attributed the number of projects to aggressive outreach among staff members, a favorable tax climate, as well as the state’s central location, which makes it increasingly attractive, especially amid rising gas costs. He expects to see similar project flow in 2014, he said.

“We are very fortunate to be in a very central location with a great physical infrastructure,” he said. “You should expect to see another year like 2013 in 2014 in terms of projects we work on and the type of job creation.”

Utah, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Pennsylvania were runners-up for the “State of the Year” title, according to Business Facilities. Tennessee and Texas have both won the top position twice since the ranking was created in 2007, with Texas receiving the honor last year. Tennessee garnered the title in 2009, under Gov. Phil Bredesen, when Chattanooga landed Volkswagen’s North American assembly facility.

[Sissyk]

8. I knew most of that but,

Thanks! I'm for all new jobs in our state.

When I said that, I was really referring to "all" the jobs the Team creates from concession to valet to vendors to apparel to hotels to taxi service etc. It probably is in the thousands and our state doesn't want to lose them, especially since the Titans pays it's taxes.

[LittleBlue]

6. Bingo

IIRC the NFL corporate entity actually made a loss, so they would not pay taxes anyway. It's just a small thing, virtually all of the revenue generating transactions happen at team level.

[peacebird]

9. Perhaps their loss is because they pay their head guy 30 mil a year?

[LittleBlue]

10. Indeed.

And the NFL can deduct it as an expense because he pays income tax.