At NFL headquarters on Park Avenue in Manhattan, the daily business may span game scheduling, referee hiring or media-rights bargaining – an operation financially fueled by all 32 pro teams which collectively pay more than $250 million in annual “membership dues.”
All of that revenue received by the league office — more than a half billion dollars since 2010 — is untouchable to the Internal Revenue Service.
Score? No, says the NFL’s tax attorney, Jeremy Spector. He says the league office, according to U.S. tax code, is a nonprofit trade association, promoting football and serving as an agent and organizer for the 32 clubs. And it’s been that way since the 1940s.
The NFL's 990 federal tax form, filed to the IRS in 2012 and available for view at the nonprofit watchdog site GuideStar, shows that during the previous year the league office received $255.3 million in revenue (almost all of it via annual dues paid by the teams) while it spent a total of $332.9 million, including $2.3 million in grants given to community groups like United Way ($15,898) and March of Dimes ($10,000).
Using its tax-exempt revenues, the league office also paid $29.4 million in salary to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, for which he owed income taxes, and it paid $35.9 million to the New York City construction firm J.T. Magen & Company, which built out a new office space for the NFL bosses and their 1,546 employees after their previous lease expired and they opted to relocate to another part of Manhattan.
The National Hockey League's main office, just like the NFL league office, does file a 990 form with the IRS as a 501 (c) 6.
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/legal-procedure-critics-cry-foul-nfl-defends-nonprofit-status-8C11412804
All of that revenue received by the league office — more than a half billion dollars since 2010 — is untouchable to the Internal Revenue Service.
Score? No, says the NFL’s tax attorney, Jeremy Spector. He says the league office, according to U.S. tax code, is a nonprofit trade association, promoting football and serving as an agent and organizer for the 32 clubs. And it’s been that way since the 1940s.
The NFL's 990 federal tax form, filed to the IRS in 2012 and available for view at the nonprofit watchdog site GuideStar, shows that during the previous year the league office received $255.3 million in revenue (almost all of it via annual dues paid by the teams) while it spent a total of $332.9 million, including $2.3 million in grants given to community groups like United Way ($15,898) and March of Dimes ($10,000).
Using its tax-exempt revenues, the league office also paid $29.4 million in salary to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, for which he owed income taxes, and it paid $35.9 million to the New York City construction firm J.T. Magen & Company, which built out a new office space for the NFL bosses and their 1,546 employees after their previous lease expired and they opted to relocate to another part of Manhattan.
The National Hockey League's main office, just like the NFL league office, does file a 990 form with the IRS as a 501 (c) 6.
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/legal-procedure-critics-cry-foul-nfl-defends-nonprofit-status-8C11412804
