As I was getting my taxes ready for our CPA, certain things just really bug me.
I was adding up all my losing race and sports tickets and then putting my “signers” together. Race bettors, most of the time, lose their money and then comes that day that you make a nice hit.
It doesn’t even come close to getting you even for the year or even the month but the IRS wants you to sign for the ticket to make your life a little more difficult. If the ticket is over $5,000 they want almost 30% in withholding off the top. That is what the little guy needs to deal with.
Now, I really got jacked after reading a few stories about these same tax people themselves owing the IRS millions of dollars along with such high end people as the Reverend Al Sharpton who is said to owe millions of dollars.
That really didn’t get me as riled as reading the article about the all-powerful, all wonderful, almighty NFL, which for some reason is a not-for-profit, tax exempt operation whose teams pulled in billions last year.
Do they perform the same thing as Catholic Charities or the Salvation Army? Now if they are a non-profit operation what the heck are they doing paying their president $44 million dollars a year to run their tax exempt non-profit operation! Big Al Capone would be very jealous and want a piece as would Bugsy Siegal.
So we have players beating on their wives and kids, teams supposedly taking air out of their footballs. Kid stuff compared to commish Roger Goodell making $44 million a year and little horse bettors trying to fill out their tax forms cause they made a $2,500 huge score.
Goodell has a 7 year contract for this tax exempt, non-profit organization and his gestapo. The NFL claims they are a 501c(6) organization. Oh well, what am I not seeing? Are the tax codes missing something or do they just want to rape the little guy?
The NFL does file form 990 and for the year of 2013 they reported revenue of $327 million with a profit of just $9 million. Good job Roger the dodger!
Now, we just can’t point our finger at Roger as this tax exempt, non-profit organization also pays over $60 million in compensation to its staff of some 298 employees making at least $100k a year. All this big loot is subsidized by hard workers like you and me, the little tax payers, who have worked on the square all our lives while paying taxes to the IRS.
The tax exempt, non-profit NFL doled out some $1.2 million on lobbying in 2013, making sure they kept the tax exempt status. They also doled out almost $750k to the NFL Foundation for Charitable Gifts that cover fines for coaches and players.
Thank God for us taxpayers or these very well paid coaches and players would not be able to afford paying their fines.
Just some food for thought when filling out your taxes this year, and when you get that pay stub remember where some of your tax dollars are heading.
On to baseball
Speaking of the $44 million Roger the Dodger is getting, if you were a Major League Baseball team what pitcher would you pay $200 million for: Madison Bumgarner, Clayton Kershaw or Max Scherzer?
Personally I would think Bumgarner and Kershaw may be worth that even though I believe no one should be paid that kind of money. However, the Washington Nationals paid Max the money, with no shot at getting their $200 million worth as he can’t go to the breeding shed after he retires.
Some baseball teams have made significant upgrades this off season. The Cubs, White Sox, Padres and Nationals all added to good rosters already in place and are very serious about the upcoming season.
The Suncoast had the St. Louis Cardinals at 12-1 to win the World Series which is a good take. The Cards come off a 90-win season and will still be the team to beat in the NL Central. The youth minded Cubs offer little value, as usual, in the future book as they are a team that gets hammered every year but will be a solid dog play during the season.
As we little guys move on with our tax paying life, remember to make that bet today and every day. You just may be walking around lucky and not even know it.
Richard Saber, a former director of race and sports at the famed Stardust book, is GamingToday’s horse racing and sports handicapper. Follow Richard on Twitter @SabesBet. Contact Richard at [email protected].