An idea to remove the cap advantage for no tax states

[Mirka the Turka]

No, we should not reward areas with high taxes because of poor governmental decisions. Just like high taxes pushes away business from your city is the same logic that should be applied with star players avoiding high tax areas.

 

[Pete Taylor]

1. Terrible idea.
2. The advantage is nowhere near 15-25% lol

With the right tax accountant, you can actually pay nothing. All of these guys have the money to hire a quality tax accountant, the issue is way too overblown.

 

[PenguinSuitedUp]

I agree however the league already capped the spending of the rich teams instead of making the poor teams work harder to make money. Therefore you shouldn’t save one and not the other.

The wealthier teams can spend as much as they want- they can pour money into marketing, property and equipment, staff (scouting, development, etc), and numerous other things.

Meanwhile, the poorer teams are being forced to work harder, because there is a minimum spend requirement. In order to justify spending to the min, teams will need to be competitive to bring fans into the arenas and sell more merch, which will help drive revenue above and beyond spend on salary.

What the cap has done is allow franchises in smaller markets an opportunity to right the ship until they become more viable in their markets in a more sustainable way. And it’s prevented us from having to watch the same six franchises be prominent year in and year out, forcing them to finally work on spending smartly rather than just throwing piles of money wherever and hoping it sticks.

Just find out whatever the overall percentage that tax free teams get over every other team and than allow said teams to go over it by the exact same percentage.

It’s not that simple. Players will get taxed more or less in a year based on the schedule of games they play. If you live in a tax-free state, you are still going to get taxed for the days you spent working/playing games in New Jersey, California, New York, Massachusetts, etc.

 

[PenguinSuitedUp]

Nobody cares how much money these millionaires are taking home. They just want their teams to be able to spend more money. With a soft cap, we can quit pretending like we care about taxes and cut to the chase.

If the owners aren’t willing to do that, they definitely won’t be willing to do any of these other more difficult or complex proposals.

A soft cap will give way more significant cap advantages to New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc. that’s a non-starter for me.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Just abolish the income tax across the board

 

[tucker3434]

A soft cap will give way more significant cap advantages to New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc. that’s a non-starter for me.

It’s a non-starter for the owners. But if they did want to send more money to the players, that’s how they’d do it. All this other stuff is needlessly complex.

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

Nobody cares how much money these millionaires are taking home. They just want their teams to be able to spend more money. With a soft cap, we can quit pretending like we care about taxes and cut to the chase.

If the owners aren’t willing to do that, they definitely won’t be willing to do any of these other more difficult or complex proposals.

The issue is that the owners proved their resolve to get linkage between HRR revenue and player costs. They have defended that linkage at EVERY opportunity, and the VAST majority of owners want it this way. Some fans, who either don't remember the pre-cap days or were a fan of the 6-8 teams which were able to take advantage of owner/market dynamics to have a VERY significant advantage, pine for the days where the playing field was completely skewed.

The goal of the cap in the CBA was to create the linkage - with "parity" being a distance 2nd. The owners aren't going to give up the linkage aspect to slightly improve parity when the no-tax state impact is almost certainly less than a 5% difference. That's a rounding error compared to other known and allowed issues in with the Cap.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

What is the actual math on the difference in take home pay for avg salary ($3.5M)? I’ve seen calculations before that are just wrong (don’t account for tax law, road games, etc).

Because back of the napkin in my head… this is one of the most overblown issues there is, especially in a league that’s highest paid players are making peanuts compared to other sports leagues that have no problem with it.

 

[MikeyMike01]

Do Canadians not realize that the people in those states still pay federal taxes?

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

With the right tax accountant, you can actually pay nothing. All of these guys have the money to hire a quality tax accountant, the issue is way too overblown.

Pete - you are 100% incorrect. I'm a CPA, and there isn't a tax accountant on the planet that can get you out paying income taxes.

 

[Laus723]

Should we also apply cap adjustments to teams who are in markets where more endorsement deals are available? What about adjustments for cost of living? Should we update cap for changes in the currency exchange rate?

The answer is no. Florida was a loser franchise for years, and players had no interest in sacrificing money to go there. Canadian fans complained about the fact that there is a franchise in Florida for two decades. Now that Florida is winning, they want to reduce their ability to compete. Winning is driving Florida’s contracts down, not tax dollars.

BOOM. This!! So much this.

Panthers have owners who busted ass for a decade to get a Cup, pulled the franchise up from ashes the previous ownership group burned it down to, northerners bitched and moaned our whole existence while not having a clue wtf was going on and why we were where we were…but now that we’ve won a Cup, the owners renovated War Memorial so the players have a great practice facility, owners are invested in the community overall... Zito’s found bargain players, he's spent wisely, we just lost Monty, OEL, and Lomberg to name a few…but “tax advantage.”

It’s called having a great GM and great owners

 

[Pete Taylor]

Pete - you are 100% incorrect. I'm a CPA, and there isn't a tax accountant on the planet that can get you out paying income taxes.

Beukeboom, I should have not said 'nothing'. In reference to tax, there are ways to significantly mitigate what you pay, and I am sure that you know this.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Pete - you are 100% incorrect. I'm a CPA, and there isn't a tax accountant on the planet that can get you out paying income taxes.

however- if you own the right assets they can get them deferred

 

[Rabid Ranger]

I feel like this is another lazy attempt to whine about Canadian teams losing out on most of the premium free agents.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

The league would have to pull money out of the no-tax state players at a certain %. Can't do anything with the actual cap. Not sure where that money would end up going though.

 

[Neil Racki]

Its is an advantage and Im sure agents and GMs lean on it a lot as a selling point.

NYC sells the international prestige and marketing opportunities.

Minnesota sells the beautiful affordable lakeside mansions.

DC sells you way super expensive housing and involuntary valet service when you drive into the city for dinner.

Is what it is.

 

[SomeDude]

So after this is tried and most good players still don’t want to go to Canadian markets I am guessing the next step would be to give Canadian teams extra cap to offset not having cities with warm climates and having to deal with insufferable and rabid fan bases and media.

 

[Mrfenn92]

Taxes the reason my team sucks

 

[McShogun99]

Just have Canada remove Provincial taxes and watch the NHL fix the problem to make it fair to the American teams that have State taxes.

 

[tucker3434]

The issue is that the owners proved their resolve to get linkage between HRR revenue and player costs. They have defended that linkage at EVERY opportunity, and the VAST majority of owners want it this way. Some fans, who either don't remember the pre-cap days or were a fan of the 6-8 teams which were able to take advantage of owner/market dynamics to have a VERY significant advantage, pine for the days where the playing field was completely skewed.

The goal of the cap in the CBA was to create the linkage - with "parity" being a distance 2nd. The owners aren't going to give up the linkage aspect to slightly improve parity when the no-tax state impact is almost certainly less than a 5% difference. That's a rounding error compared to other known and allowed issues in with the Cap.

I’m just playing devil’s advocate. It is my opinion that the owners (all of them) love having a hard cap on their largest expense line item. They want their managers to figure out how to make it work in a system that rewards them with record profits year after year. This is, after all, a business.

But… if they did wake up one morning and decide they hate money, you wouldn’t have to light it on fire in the most difficult way possible.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

DC sells you way super expensive housing and involuntary valet service when you drive into the city for dinner.

This is crazy when your location in bio is Baltimore

But anyway, the players all live in VA, practice in VA.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

This again? Already?

 

[the_fan]

Just pay everyone under the table. Problem solved

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Pete - you are 100% incorrect. I'm a CPA, and there isn't a tax accountant on the planet that can get you out paying income taxes.

 

[cowboy82nd]

Just have Canada remove Provincial taxes and watch the NHL fix the problem to make it fair to the American teams that have State taxes.

Yup, it's all rigged for American teams. And this is coming from an Edmonton fan that was gifted how many first overall picks?