Tax Bill Worth Millions to Pro Teams Is Approved

[baby_bear]

This is part of the large corporate tax bill passed by the Senate yesterday, but most articles I saw didn't include this part. This article is in today's NYTimes sports section.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/sports/12owners.html

Tax Bill Worth Millions to Pro Teams Is Approved
By DUFF WILSON

Published: October 12, 2004


A lot of pro sports owners woke up richer today, at least on paper. A number of investment bankers and accountants say many professional sports franchises will gain tens of millions of dollars in value because of approval yesterday by the United States Senate of a sprawling tax bill focused on multinational corporations and farmers.

The change to an obscure tax rule affecting pro sports owners was contained in a single sentence in the 633-page bill, which was approved last week by the House of Representatives. The measure allows owners to write off the full value of their franchises over 15 years; under current tax law, they can write off only the value of players' contracts over three to five years.

The change might give a $2 billion windfall to pro sports owners, as bankers estimated it would add about 5 percent to the value of professional franchises, which was estimated at $41 billion over all by Forbes magazine in 2002.
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Good grief. They already get plenty of tax deductions, and many teams get taxpayer-sponsored stadiums to play in.

s_m

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Yeah, those poor millionaires. Lord knows they need federal

assistance more than other Americans.

[tibbir]

2. The whole thing just blows my mind.

Social Security and Medicare (which keep me alive) are at risk because of the growing deficit and the President's/Senate's/House's response is to give tax breaks again - to corporations who aren't paying nearly enough in taxes as it is. :grr:

[rfkrocks]

3. they gave NASCAR over 100 million in breaks

I guess they are afraid it may be outsourced:eyes: You know it is amazing that we have people in theis country without jobs and our spend and cut congress run by the GOP thinks of nothing but further increases in our debt