NFL Gives Up Tax Exempt Status...Will PGA Tour Follow?

Of course not! And possibly for good reason.

But it'll be interesting to watch the fall out from the NFL's reversal on their previous stance.

Eric Edholm reports for Yahoo Sports (thanks reader Larry) after the news was broken by Bloomberg's Scott Soshnick, who obtained Commissioner Roger Goodell's memo to the owners:

The fact is that the business of the NFL has never been tax exempt. Every dollar of income generated through television rights fees, licensing agreements, sponsorships, ticket sales, and other means is earned by the 32 clubs and is taxable there. This will remain the case even when the league office and Management Council file returns as taxable entities, and the change in filing status will make no material difference to our business. As a result, the Committees decided to eliminate this distraction.

Recently Congress has questioned whether sports league associations should, as a matter of federal tax policy, be tax exempt. We will notify interested members of Congress of this decision by NFL ownership.

Edholm notes:

In recent years, congressional forces have rallied against this tax-exempt status — as well as with other sports leagues, such as the PGA and NHL — and have pressured the leagues to give it up and pay their fair share. The NFL apparently has the money and is willing to get ahead of the game to avoid a public-relations nightmare.

Drew Harwell and Will Hobson of the Washington Post conclude the move will help the NFL get discussion away from Commissioner Goodell's salary.

The NFL’s head office will have to pay taxes on its income, which totaled about $327 million in 2013. But it will no longer have to file yearly tax forms that publicly disclose details like executive pay, including for commissioner Roger Goodell, who made $44 million in 2012.

In a letter dated Tuesday to team owners and members of Congress, Goodell called the decades-old tax-exempt status a “distraction” that has “been mischaracterized repeatedly,” and whose end “will make no material difference to our business.”

The PGA Tour's response will be that it is an entirely different tax-exempt structure with massive amounts going to charity (more than all of the other pro sports leagues combined). Will that be enough to find off the critics? Isn't it tempting to hide the Ponte Vedra salaries? Just a bit, Ty?