Jeff Tenenbaum's message in the EO Tax
Journal's EOTJ Mailbag regarding the NFL's
decision to relinquish its federal tax-exempt status and the
challenges it may face during the conversion process:
"Paul, as you know, the NFL's announcement yesterday about
its decision to voluntarily relinquish its federal tax-exempt
status made big news across the country. As a nonprofit lawyer, to
me, the far more interesting issue is the question of exactly how
the NFL plans to go about relinquishing not only its federal (and
state) exemption from corporate income tax, but also its nonprofit
corporate status (which presumably it plans to do if it wants to
avoid challenges from its state Attorney General on the executive
compensation front), and what will happen to the assets currently
residing in the nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation. While there are
some available mechanisms for doing so, it is not a simple process,
and the net assets -- if there are any net assets (the NFL's
2014 Form 990 suggested there are none) -- cannot simply inure to
the benefit of the league's 32 clubs (teams). Granting the net
assets (if any) to NFL Charities (an affiliated (c)(3) entity) is
an option, but I'm not sure if that is in the cards. There is
precedent here -- in 2007, Major League Baseball went through a
similar "conversion," both to taxable and for-profit
status, and the NFL is being advised by the same tax attorney
(Jeremy Spector of Covington & Burling). From what Jeremy told
me a while back, it was a very complex process they undertook to
effectuate the "conversion." While I am a huge NFL
football fan, I guess I remain a nonprofit tax nerd as well! There
could be worse things to be called."
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