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The NFL Is A Tax-Exempt Organization -- But One Senator Wants To Change That | ThinkProgress
Wow, the things you learn. One of the biggest most profitable sports businesses out there is tax exempt. They are considered a charity. What I am amazed about is that few people seem to actually care that we have missed out on billions of dollars of tax revenue from professional sports businesses posing as NFPs. What charity is this? the help the steroid addicted rage machines to have billions of dollars charity? Oh, and before anyone blames Obama for this, it seems to have been around since 1966. This is not a church, or an organization that is going to be destroyed by a little taxation. These professional sports organizations have not only been skirting their tax responsibilities, but also taking advantage of taxpayer payouts, forcing cable and satellite companies to charge every one of their customers for sports networks they may never watch, and occasionally causing riots in our streets and certainly a fair share of bar fights every week.
How is it that no one in our government up until now has thought to tax these professional sports leagues? These are not amateur or rec leagues that help provide activities for a community, these are pro sports with pure business motives. We need tax revenue, and they get huge benefits from being in america where many of these sports are insanely popular. This should be a no brainer for an amendment, so who out here agrees with me that this amendment to the tax code will get shot down by both sides?
Since 1966, the tax code has allowed leagues to classify as 501(c)(6) charitable organizations — a classification used by trade and industry organizations — under the assumption that the leagues were promoting the general value of their sports. But Coburn’s amendment asserts that the leagues are not non-profits engaged in the promotion of their sports but instead are businesses interested solely in the promotion of their business; that is, the NFL isn’t so much concerned about promoting the general sport of football as it is concerned with promoting NFL football, because it is the NFL brand and the NFL teams and logos and products that make it a profitable business. The NFL, for instance, didn’t seem interested in promoting the general spread of football when a competitor league, the United States Football League, was formed in 1983. Likewise, the PGA Tour, NHL, and other sports leagues serve to promote their brand of their sports, not the sport as a whole.
Wow, the things you learn. One of the biggest most profitable sports businesses out there is tax exempt. They are considered a charity. What I am amazed about is that few people seem to actually care that we have missed out on billions of dollars of tax revenue from professional sports businesses posing as NFPs. What charity is this? the help the steroid addicted rage machines to have billions of dollars charity? Oh, and before anyone blames Obama for this, it seems to have been around since 1966. This is not a church, or an organization that is going to be destroyed by a little taxation. These professional sports organizations have not only been skirting their tax responsibilities, but also taking advantage of taxpayer payouts, forcing cable and satellite companies to charge every one of their customers for sports networks they may never watch, and occasionally causing riots in our streets and certainly a fair share of bar fights every week.
How is it that no one in our government up until now has thought to tax these professional sports leagues? These are not amateur or rec leagues that help provide activities for a community, these are pro sports with pure business motives. We need tax revenue, and they get huge benefits from being in america where many of these sports are insanely popular. This should be a no brainer for an amendment, so who out here agrees with me that this amendment to the tax code will get shot down by both sides?