Posted on 06/19/2018 3:18:22 PM PDT by iowamark
PRO Sports Act would give $100 million back to taxpayers
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Angus King (I-ME) introduced bipartisan legislation, the Properly Reducing Overexemptions for Sports (PRO Sports) Act, to strip multi-million dollar professional sports leagues of their tax-exempt status, saving roughly $100 million in taxpayer dollars over 10 years.
“Professional sports leagues – which are raking in millions of dollars from television rights and membership dues – shouldn’t also be scoring a hole-in-one with their taxes,” said Senator Ernst. “The PRO Sports Act amends the tax code to revoke this unnecessary exemption, saving approximately $100 million in taxpayer dollars over 10 years. Senator King and I are cutting this wasteful spending and protecting taxpayer dollars.”
The PRO Sports Act would revoke the 501(c)(6), tax-exempt status of professional sports leagues with over $10 million in gross receipts. While some leagues have voluntarily ended their tax-exempt status in recent years, others continue to use this loophole while bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
“Sports leagues like the NHL and the PGA Tour provide entertainment for millions of Americans, but that doesn’t mean these league-specific brands should be able to utilize Section 501(c)(6) of the tax code to be tax exempt,” said Senator King. “This bill would help close loopholes that allow leagues to boost their profits at the expense of taxpayers – it’s just common sense.”
Read the full text of the bill here.
About time.
God Bless these two senators.
common sense, bi-partisan bill.
And who are the Democrats supporting this common sense legislation? All of ‘em seem to be hanging around DHS facilities and moaning piteously about ‘the chilrun’.
sounds like MORE WINNING!
and let’s make sure their Monopoly status is broken up too
(Congress gave them an anti=trust special status)
let’s get some new, hopefully much better teams started up!
to hell with NFL!
Amen.
Absolutely. Ghetto thugs have ruined what was once a great league.
It wasn’t always like this. Look at the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins and you had gentlemen of color like Paul Warfield and Larry Little, who played their hearts out and deserved that Super Bowl win.
Sadly, most of whatever decency remains in the NFL rests with a relative handful of predominantly white players. And their ranks will be growing thinner. Joe Thomas, retired. Jason Witten, retired. Jordy Nelson, no longer with the Packers and probably looking at his last season.
In that case I can not see how they can tax my book store as a business. Books are very entertaining.
Yes!!
Books are more entertaining than sportball. All professional sports leagues should pay tax like any other business.
I agree that youth sports organizations that do not charge admission - but sell snacks, t-shirts, etc. to raise funds, as well as charging a fee to participants - should be tax exempt.
Get rid of all tax exempt organizations.
This does not go far enough. There should be a special income tax bracket for the NFL, Rodger Goddell, and the players. A 70% marginal rate sounds good for the NFL. The money can go for “social justice.”
I am inclined to agree. And withdraw most antitrust protection.
Good start...but now OUTLAW the city and other government subsidies that result in black Middle Class families seeing their property taxes increasing 10% a year to make up for the lost revenue.
...but they won’t.
Saving the government money? Saving? More like raising taxes.
As far as I know the teams themselves already pay taxes. The leagues are not taxed because they are technically non profits, as in they pay salaries to their employees but no one makes a profit from them (no one is supposed to take money out if there is a profit).
It’s a start. Now go after NPR and PBS.
It’ll bring in a lot more than $100MM, as the non-profit structure minimizes revenue and maximizes expense, whereas the for-profit structure does the opposite.
It’ll also make them think more clearly about what’s required for growth...
End special privileges for a bunch of millionaires playing a game!
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