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| James "Kimo" Rosen is a retired Professional photographer and publisher. Rosen lives on the beautiful Garden Island of Kaua'i with his best friend Obama Da Dog. Rosen also posts the Sunrise daily on his Facebook Timeline. http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letters-for-jan/article_370cb080-a906-11e4-ab7c-e7f4be71d229.html |
The NFL,Non Profit, My Buttocks
Imagine Netflix, Facebook and Google declaring themselves non profits to avoid paying taxes. People would be in an uproar. Now imagine the National Football League declaring itself a non profit, well they did, and they are.
Believe it or not the National Football League (NFL) has avoided paying taxes since 1966 by defining itself as a nonprofit organization
The NFL is not a charity, quite the contrary. How can an organization where it's top executive commissioner Roger Goodell make 44 million a year and with many player contracts in the multi millions be non-profit?
It was estimated that the NFL in 2013 made almost $9 billion dollars in revenue and didn't pay a cent in taxes.
The NFL is protected underneath an obscure clause in the Internal Revenue Code that states ‘professional football leagues’ deserve the same tax breaks as soup kitchens, charities and endowments for the arts organizations.
This is ludicrous and needs to stop. The rich keep getting richer, while the poor and middle class absorb most the of the burden of societies taxes.
Bottom line, NFL teams are a bunch of overpaid kids, that win, loose or draw make more than most of us ever will. Minimum pay for players, even third string bench warmers is $420,00 a year. Even guys not on the team but on the practice squads make a minimum of 6,000 per week. So it's really all about money, since next year many of your favorite players will be on totally different teams only because of money and what free agency can bring. Go figure, and I'm getting emotional over these games.
It is beyond reason that a non profit entity can charge the following prices for Super bowl XLIX (49) in Glendale Arizona between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.The highest priced tickets are listing for $17,800 and would put you in the lower center of the stadium. The least expensive seats are listing for $1,857, according to TiqIQ .
If you're thinking $1,800 or $18,000 is a drop in the bucket, then you might consider upping the ante to a luxury box. Those are going between $726,000 and close to $1 million. When all is said and done the average ticket price is right around $4,000.
Please don't get me wrong. I am an avid football fan and respect people's spiritual rights to believe. However my right to believe is that the NFL and many spiritual non profits are taking advantage of loopholes that seem to primarily benefit the ultra-rich. The NFL needs to start paying it's fare share.
For those down on New England for allegedly cheating with deflated balls (Deflate-gate) remember the league itself cheats every American by not filing taxes with it's non profit status. The pot calling the kettle black is what I see...
The Question still remains,How can the NFL be a a non profit?Non profit, my buttocks. The jokes on us.
This blog also ran as an opinion article in the 01-31-15 edition of The Garden Island Newspaper, check it out;
http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letters-for-jan/article_370cb080-a906-11e4-ab7c-e7f4be71d229.html
A rebuttal to my article appeared in the 02-03-15 edition of The Garden Island Newspaper;
http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letters-for-feb/article_727eb288-ab65-11e4-a44e-43f49ad72c08.html
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| This meme was used on Facebook to promote this blog.. BTW, That's me in 1998 on the sidelines at the the Pro-bowl in Honolulu's Aloha stadium with Buffalo Bills Quarterback Doug Flutie. I used to get press passes for everything when I published Alaska People Magazine... |
P.S.
Saturday Night Live does satire on Deflate-gate;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RGRyTGUbv4#t=304 P.S.S.
A refined version of this appeared in the 01-23-15 edition of the Honolulu Staradvertiser.
Since the Staradvertiser has a paywall I am copying and pasting the opinion article below;
NFL exploiting federal tax law
Imagine Netflix, Facebook and Google declaring themselves nonprofits to avoid paying taxes.
People would be in an uproar.
Now imagine the National Football League declaring itself a nonprofit. Quite the contrary. How can an organization where its top executive, Commissioner Roger Goodell, makes $44 million a year be a nonprofit?
The NFL is protected under an obscure clause in the Internal Revenue Code that states “professional football leagues’” deserve the same tax breaks as soup kitchens, charities and endowments for the arts.
The NFL is taking advantage of loopholes that seem to primarily benefit the rich.
For those down on the New England Patriots for allegedly cheating with deflated balls (“Deflategate”), remember the league itself cheats every American by not filing taxes with its nonprofit status.
James “Kimo” Rosen
Kapaa, Kauai
http://www.staradvertiser.com
Sunrise Therapy
Hanna Hou, (Encore) Shared from Facebook...
