The NFL has often faced scrutiny over its status as a tax-exempt organization. Now the league is deciding to give up that status.
According to Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal, the NFL will change its status to taxable from tax-exempt. The federal government has granted tax-exempt 501(c)(6) status to the NFL since 1966.
That may reduce the criticism the league takes for being a tax-exempt organization, but more important to the league, it removes the requirement that the NFL disclose the compensation of Commissioner Roger Goodell and other top executives. So Goodell’s salary will no longer be public record.
Although the league has been classified as a tax-exempt organization, the 32 teams are all taxable, for-profit businesses, which means the money made by the league is taxed. This move will not affect the tax burden faced by the teams.
It will still be business as usual, football fans: Goodell will continue unabated in his quest to remove all of the football from football. And some twenty year olds who suddenly become multi-millionaires will be train wrecks.
The only big difference is that Congress now doesn’t have a built-in excuse to shirk other responsibilities to hold hearings about the league whenever it wants.
The fact that any of the major sports leagues are tax-exempt is both a joke and an affront to hard working citizens (especially the self employed) who can’t dance around IRS rules, leaving us less money to spend on NFL merchandise.
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