Opinion Page: Screw a PGA Tour card, let me get that tax-exempt status
The PGA Ain’t that Kind of Charity
The recent turmoil on the PGA Tour is enough to give a guy acid reflux, but who can blame them? They tried to concede defeat to the LIV Tour only to spark the government intervention they’d hoped would happen when Greg Norman was poaching their best players, and now that sloppiness and spotlight might end the Tour’s very coveted tax-exempt status.
Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) has written up legislation — the No Corporate Tax Exemption for Professional Sports Act — that would essentially strip pro sports leagues from using the 501(c)(6) status under the Tax Code. While Saudi Arabia has made the Tour a sympathetic figure, unable to match contract offers and court costs, it’s a slug of a corporation like any other.
The circuit was projected to clear $1.522 billion in revenue for 2022, with an estimated $838 million of that allocated for player purses, according to SI. So, regale me, why in the name of Zeus’ butthole does the PGA Tour ever deserve to skate on its tax bill? I’m not a CPA, just an asshole behind a keyboard, but holding a couple of outreach programs for urban overachievers does not qualify as a nonprofit.
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By the way, the writer should just report the nonprofit news and stop trying to be cute with casual vulgarity.
darryll k. jones