A Modest Tax Proposal That Might Help the Bills

[Arkady Renko]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/opinion/...malbeck.html?hp

 

Anything that would de-emphasize the reliance of professional sports teams on luxury boxes would be a good thing for the future of the Bills in Buffalo.

[PromoTheRobot]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/opinion/...malbeck.html?hp

 

Anything that would de-emphasize the reliance of professional sports teams on luxury boxes would be a good thing for the future of the Bills in Buffalo.

Corporate welfare.

 

PTR

[bowery4]

It is corp welfare now, I like it.

[Tim Anderson's Lunch Pail]

This article is a waste of time. If he wanted to bring awareness, fine. But to suggest this could be a reality which would reduce ticket prices significantly for the average fan is madness. These leagues are past the point of no return. We won't see $8 tickets ever again.

[BobDVA]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/opinion/...malbeck.html?hp

 

Anything that would de-emphasize the reliance of professional sports teams on luxury boxes would be a good thing for the future of the Bills in Buffalo.

 

Then the corporations can stop spending entertainment money on corporate big wigs, and can spend it on entertainment for their employees, for example they can take their customer service, collections. and IT departments to their professional sport of choice, Cricket. And for their suppliers, luxury box seats for Wushu, China's national sport.

 

I love me some corporations....

[Mr. WEO]

This is more "soak the rich" stuff from the NYT.

 

The amount of money this would generate for the national fisc is essentially nothing.

 

Obviously, these two geniuses (Rutgers School of Business??? why??) haven't thought out that if business didn't purchase luxury boxes, many stadiums wouldn't be remodeled or built.

[dwight in philly]

This is more "soak the rich" stuff from the NYT.

 

The amount of money this would generate for the national fisc is essentially nothing.

 

Obviously, these two geniuses (Rutgers School of Business??? why??) haven't thought out that if business didn't purchase luxury boxes, many stadiums wouldn't be remodeled or built.

my total focus is always on keeping the bills in buffalo, where they belong. i know, green bay was grandfathered in as far as community ownership goes, but i think some heat should be generated by the politicians on the league to allow buffalo, if there is interest to do so, be community owned. i am aware of the "jerry jones" type arguments about "franchise value" and maintaining it, but i do not think the NFL wants to be like baseball. they want the small market in their league. i think it should be explored, but if jacksonville moves to LA, then all of a sudden the leverage is gone for the ever threatening owners . outside of san antonio, there will be no more markets to really go to that are realistically viable.

[robertpaul49]

"There are many reasons for the price explosion, but a critical factor has been the ability of businesses to write off tickets as entertainment expenses — essentially a huge, and wholly unnecessary, government subsidy. "

 

First, when has been the before tax dollars are a subsidy? If they tax entertainment expenses, it will certainly decrease the amount of money available to the Yankees. I doubt it will have too much effect on the Bills.

 

Second, Yankee tickets are expensive because there is so much money in New York. Personally, I believe that the root cause of increased prices has more to do with the fact that the games are more popular than ever, the population of the United States is larger so demand is greater, and that the population as a whole (up until the last two years) has been more properous.

 

Third, the biggest rip off is not the entertainment expense but the State subsidies to build stadiums in the Bronx and Queens. New York City property taxes are very low. How about having the local property taxes pay for those stadiums.

 

Lastly, we should be looking at the subsidies for university professors. They receive a lot of perks, including free tuition for their children, reduced teaching schedules, too much time doing private research, as well as obsene amount of vacation time. Frankly, the inflation in tuition is a much bigger issue than sporting events.

[PS 56]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/opinion/...malbeck.html?hp

 

Anything that would de-emphasize the reliance of professional sports teams on luxury boxes would be a good thing for the future of the Bills in Buffalo.

 

I have an even better idea. Extend the tax deduction to everyone. Government takes too much money as it is.

[dwight in philly]

"There are many reasons for the price explosion, but a critical factor has been the ability of businesses to write off tickets as entertainment expenses — essentially a huge, and wholly unnecessary, government subsidy. "

 

First, when has been the before tax dollars are a subsidy? If they tax entertainment expenses, it will certainly decrease the amount of money available to the Yankees. I doubt it will have too much effect on the Bills.

 

Second, Yankee tickets are expensive because there is so much money in New York. Personally, I believe that the root cause of increased prices has more to do with the fact that the games are more popular than ever, the population of the United States is larger so demand is greater, and that the population as a whole (up until the last two years) has been more properous.

 

Third, the biggest rip off is not the entertainment expense but the State subsidies to build stadiums in the Bronx and Queens. New York City property taxes are very low. How about having the local property taxes pay for those stadiums.

 

Lastly, we should be looking at the subsidies for university professors. They receive a lot of perks, including free tuition for their children, reduced teaching schedules, too much time doing private research, as well as obsene amount of vacation time. Frankly, the inflation in tuition is a much bigger issue than sporting events.

bingo! university professors make wall street crooks look like choir boys!. they are legally stealing money. to command the salaries and perks , and not have a clue as to what goes on in the real world is maddening.

[jo39416]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/opinion/...malbeck.html?hp

 

Anything that would de-emphasize the reliance of professional sports teams on luxury boxes would be a good thing for the future of the Bills in Buffalo.

 

As a CPA in NC who has done many, many corporate tax returns where deductions for Skyboxes are taken, there is a very large discrepancy between the "premium tickets" and what is actually paid for the skybox seats.

 

In my estimation roughly 70% of the costs associated with skyboxes are not deductible by corporations.

 

Nice idea, but the message gets tripped up by the facts.

[jo39416]

bingo! university professors make wall street crooks look like choir boys!. they are legally stealing money. to command the salaries and perks , and not have a clue as to what goes on in the real world is maddening.

 

Dwight, you are truly clueless.

[dwight in philly]

Dwight, you are truly clueless.

really.... interesting, care to elaborate?.. you think college professors are worth it then? always great to be critiqued by a "wild and crazy" CPA..

[jo39416]

really.... interesting, care to elaborate?.. you think college professors are worth it then? always great to be critiqued by a "wild and crazy" CPA..

 

In short, yes they are worth what they are paid. In fact, at most universities and fields of study, they are underpaid.

 

However, my original comment points to the fact that once again I was caught reading a sports related thread when your asinine comment helped derail it.

 

Here's a clue, its a Buffalo Bills message board. No one cares about your political opinions.

[justnzane]

really.... interesting, care to elaborate?.. you think college professors are worth it then? always great to be critiqued by a "wild and crazy" CPA..

 

yeah you are clueless. While i hate defending college professors, because there a lot of poor performing professors, the amount of preparation to teach a high level class is probably double or triple what i have to do when teaching any class in middle school/ high school level. The average full-professor may teach 10 hours in a week and have 6 hours of office hours. However, this doesn't include the mandatory research they have to do for the university or the grading of papers. Fact of the matter is that not everyone can be a college professor and do it proficiently. That is what makes the professors that are masters of their craft that much more special.

[dwight in philly]

In short, yes they are worth what they are paid. In fact, at most universities and fields of study, they are underpaid.

 

However, my original comment points to the fact that once again I was caught reading a sports related thread when your asinine comment helped derail it.

 

Here's a clue, its a Buffalo Bills message board. No one cares about your political opinions.

i was responding to the previous post, part of which dealt with the salaries of college professors. you may want to re- read the entire post before passing judgment. i guess "assine" is in the mind of the beholder. you sound uptight, relax, life is good.. tax time..

[dwight in philly]

yeah you are clueless. While i hate defending college professors, because there a lot of poor performing professors, the amount of preparation to teach a high level class is probably double or triple what i have to do when teaching any class in middle school/ high school level. The average full-professor may teach 10 hours in a week and have 6 hours of office hours. However, this doesn't include the mandatory research they have to do for the university or the grading of papers. Fact of the matter is that not everyone can be a college professor and do it proficiently. That is what makes the professors that are masters of their craft that much more special.

i would think it would depend on the subject matter. how much prep does a philosophy prof have to do?, a history prof?, i think they spin the same old sh-t, to be quite honest. again, just an opinion. i wish they would refrain from "mandatory" research and take a sabbatical. maybe try a job out of the classroom, see what is actually going on.

[ddaryl]

Corporate welfare.

 

PTR

 

 

You ain't kidding...More like corporate socialism IMO....

 

People rattle off the word socialism in political attacks these days, but most haven't even begun to understand the level of corporate socialsim that is happening regularly and it costs this country is trillions...

 

All of these mega stadiums being built to satisfy more corporations and more tax write offs. That is all that is happening with the luxury box fiasco of the last 20 years. huge write offs for having a luxury suite at a sporting event... or even just season tickets. however if you or me buy those same seats we get no such write off...

 

 

it's time for this country to demand the closing of tax loopholes and rediculous write offs that would be better served paying down our out of control debt and re-building and improving this nations infrastrcutre while creating high paying jobs for the people

 

 

this quote kind of sums up the article nicely

 

Ideally, Congress would get rid of business-entertainment deductions altogether — after all, they are little more than an excuse for corporate executives to consume luxury items at a discount, distorting markets and cheating the public out of substantial tax revenue

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

it's time for this country to demand the closing of tax loopholes and rediculous write offs that would be better served paying down our out of control debt and re-building and improving this nations infrastrcutre while creating high paying jobs for the people

 

Government doesn't create jobs (except for government jobs, which are socialism).

 

Businesses create jobs.

[FloridaSnow]

How did this turn into a thread about college professors and whether or not they are overpaid?

 

Has anyone done the math to figure out how many seats it would take to replace the revenue lost from downsizing corporate sky boxes? I'm for no longer subsidizing the corporations entertainment expenditures regardless, but I'm not sure if what the writer suggests is viable.