Posted on 10/12/2017 11:12:59 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen
The tax code has been very, very good to sports team owners.
A little-known tweak to IRS rules in 2004 has allowed new owners to write off nearly all of the purchase price of their teams against profits over 15 years. ---SNIP--“Without a doubt, this is the tax break they benefit the most from,” tax expert Robert Willens told The Post.
Just how much?
Well, take the case of fracking billionaire Terry Pegula, who in 2014 paid $1.4 billion for the Buffalo Bills.
Pegula is able to deduct $93 million a year — one-fifteenth of the purchase price — against the team’s profits and his income for 15 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Well, that's a big part of it too.
Almost all exemptions, loopholes, & preferential treatment clauses in the impenetrable US tax code are specifically written & inserted to benefit the donors who paid plenty of cash to their lobbyists & congresscritters to purchase them.
Will deliberately obscure tax advantage and/or break work?
Bet the NFL would like a do-over on the political meddling by the kneeling bunch.
Fools.... cat is out of the bag.
LOL, most people don’t know what a write off is.
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>>And they get “free” stadiums from taxpayers. <<
Of course it is those taxpayers who voted for those taxes. So I don’t see a problem there.
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IOW, just like the ‘law’ that allows those on taxpayer ‘assistance’ (economic slavery) to vote a bigger % of another’s property.
BIGLY “problem”.
I’d have to see how the purchase price of a team is depreciation is rationalized, but I’m glad to see that they are no longer claiming that the NFL has tax exempt status.
At the current pace of NFL self destruction, a fifteen year depreciation schedule might be too slow. Maybe five years until the teams only have a scrap value.
this is NOT some obscure tax break. Willens is a knowledgable tax person, but the article leaves out lots of the relevant facts.
Purchased intangible assets have to be amortized over 15 years.
Goodwill, franchise fees, customer lists, (non-compete agreements might get some special treatment).
Works the same for anybody buying a franchise.
Now, it looks like a HORRIBLE deal. - WHAT? (new business owner screaming at his CPA) - I can’t deduct all my investment against income in the early years! THOSE B@ST@RD$!!, ................ etc. ..... ho, hum ....
In this “here-is-the-sound-bite, now-everyone-pile-on” world the media is foisting on us, you Freepers need to learn how to be more skeptical.
LOL, true. OTOH, a team that stands and wins may appreciate. I understand depreciation or expensing a tangible asset with a certain life, but not a sports team.
Many a stadium referendum has failed and the politicians find a way to approve the deal anyway.
"Deliberately" by itself means this exception was thoughtfully, profitably planned by owners & politicians. It wasn't some serendipitous surprise that the NFL owners stumbled over & exploited, or discovered through microscopic research.
The entire US tax code is obscure, most of it deliberately.
It is called Bread and Circuses. Got to keep the masses happy or they riot! There are more of them than the leaders!
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