NHL monitoring teams’ income-tax advantages, but ‘there are no easy fixes’

[Three On Zero]

Yeah, because the teams are good.

The no-tax "advantage" did f*** all for Florida for 20 years, and now everyone is up in arms about it.

Exactly, it’s just a coincidence that these teams happened to all hit their peak at relatively the same time. It’s going to be ugly for Tampa/Florida/Vegas in the coming years

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

New York Times? Fake news paper

oh good lord...

 

[Viqsi]

Also, while we're here debating competitive advantages and making up for them, I think more recently added teams should get some sort of offsetting bonus to make up for the competitive advantage teams that have been around for five decades or more have from being able to sell players on history and tradition.

 

[JPT]

and mostly by people who have an extremely limited understanding of how taxes work.

I'm looking forward to 15 different people quoting x Tame Impala's post on the first page, taking it seriously and agreeing that it's just that easy.

 

[Golden_Jet]

There actually is a very easy fix called abolishing income tax

Or we deal in reality

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Or we deal in reality

How do those boots taste

 

[Golden_Jet]

How do those boots taste

Still in dreamland I see

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Or we deal in reality

You can't conceive of a reality without income taxes?

 

[Toby91ca]

You can't conceive of a reality without income taxes?

But what would that reality look like?

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

But what would that reality look like?

I mean, income taxes are a pretty new thing in the US. There are plenty of other ways for governments to generate revenue.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I can.

I hope you will enjoy a world where you pay a separate toll for every road you drive on, where emergency services will only show up when you can prove you have the money to pay for it and you have no recourse when big business screws you over hard.

Like the other poster said, delusional.

There are other ways than what you've envisioned.

You talk about big business like they have a monopoly, but government is the ultimate monopoly.

 

[Shane Diesel]

There are other ways than what you've envisioned.

Ok, wow us.

And I'm a CPA so better not come to a gun fight with a knife.

Edit:

How do 9 states get by with no income tax? A tax expert explains the trade-offs they choose

Texas, Florida and 7 other states have no income tax, but they make up for it with other taxes. Sometimes those taxes mean low-income residents pay a larger percentage of their money in taxes.

theconversation.com

 

[Foppberg]

OP, did you read the article? Its less that it has no effect, but more that its impact gets overblown.



The concern may also be keeping the majority of owners on board with the status quo.

Yeah. I think something will be done that nobody is really that happy with ultimately.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Ok, wow us.

And I'm a CPA so better not come to a gun fight with a knife.

Consumed income tax.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Consumed income tax.

I'm guessing you mean consumption tax?

Unless youre solution to getting rid of income tax is another form of income tax?

 

[Peasy]

Tax advantage will not make a team automatically good. But it does help in spades when you finally have a good competitive team and can help extend its longevity by potentially getting your top players signing cheaper deals than they could/would in other markets.

I dunno why this is so difficult for people to grasp lol. I mean you even have it coming straight from a players mouth.

 

[Ace]

There are tremendously easy fixes. People just don’t like math.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

There are tremendously easy fixes. People just don’t like math.

Like?

 

[Ace]

Tax advantage will not make a team automatically good. But it does help in spades when you finally have a good competitive team and can help extend its longevity by potentially getting your top players signing cheaper deals than they could/would in other markets.

I dunno why this is so difficult for people to grasp lol. I mean you even have it coming straight from a players mouth.

Well then there should be zero opposition from teams to fix it then.

Good news.

 

[Ace]

Like?

What if I told you that a simple calculator could figure out in mere minutes the exact percentage of taxes paid by players on each team given the country they live in, the local tax rate or lack thereof, and the away schedule they play?

That this one, simple, number can then be used to compare exactly what a cap dollar is worth to each market. And you can even adjust it every single time any of those numbers changed? It’s not magic. It’s just math.

Having that number tells you exactly what the real dollar money value is to cap space in 32 different places. You just have to make the real dollar value the thing you base the cap number in each place on. And you can easily reverse engineer said number with the information you have already taken all of…several minutes…to compute.

It could be knocked out in the afternoon you know the schedules of each team. It’s completely fair…completely even…and can completely eliminate this entire issue in no time at all. Anyone who tells you otherwise is arguing in bad faith because they know it’s a competitive advantage and they want it that way. It’s just a formula you can run after setting the cap the same exact way they always do. Nothing more.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Its coming from American teams too.

I think people aren't highlighting the fact that we had a flat cap from about 2020 to this offseason. With less growth in the cap, being able to maximize cap space became more important.

So much complaining about "advantages" recently, but really, what is the advantage exactly? The advantage always seems to be having the ability to sign large free agency contracts, when historically we've seen these large contracts go sour fairly quickly for teams. There is a common "the players take home more!" comment but even then, you're on the road for 41 games just like everyone else and taxes are split accordingly, though I will say I do imagine that players out west pay more compared to east coast teams, whether that be due to cost of living in some places (looking at you Cali, Vancouver, Seattle).

Its not as if lower taxes allowed huge FA signings which lead to a cup for teams lately, Tampa sold a good majority of its futures to get some cost controlled guys over the years to stay competitive. Florida drafted well for years and made a couple of extremely shrewd trades to solidify that roster. Colorado also with drafting well, and having the ability to sign some mid tier/depth guys. Vegas... you know the story, besides that, to round out the last 10 years of Stanley Cup Champs, you have Washington, Pittsburgh, St. Louis. Again, not teams that really went out and broke the bank in free agency, they built strong teams over a few seasons and added a piece or two.

The real kicker in all of this is, again, talking about these tax advantages most people point the finger at the southern states and teams, TPA/FLA/NSH/DAL and all, and all of these teams seem to barely be in the black financially (funny accounting or not).

 

[H3ckt1k]

This feels like you intend it to be a dunk, but it's important to realize (and is pointed out in every thread on the topic) that income taxes are not the only advantage/disadvantage that certain markets have, and possibly not even the most meaningful one.

I agree with this. I think it gets underestimated how important, as an example, having a great country music scene in a place like Nashville might appeal to players.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

I agree with this. I think it gets underestimated how important, as an example, having a great country music scene in a place like Nashville might appeal to players.

Just ask Mike Fisher and Carrie Underwood.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

What if I told you that a simple calculator could figure out in mere minutes the exact percentage of taxes paid by players on each team given the country they live in, the local tax rate or lack thereof, and the away schedule they play?

That this one, simple, number can then be used to compare exactly what a cap dollar is worth to each market. And you can even adjust it every single time any of those numbers changed? It’s not magic. It’s just math.

Having that number tells you exactly what the real dollar money value is to cap space in 32 different places. You just have to make the real dollar value the thing you base the cap number in each place on. And you can easily reverse engineer said number with the information you have already taken all of…several minutes…to compute.

It could be knocked out in the afternoon you know the schedules of each team. It’s completely fair…completely even…and can completely eliminate this entire issue in no time at all. Anyone who tells you otherwise is arguing in bad faith because they know it’s a competitive advantage and they want it that way. It’s just a formula you can run after setting the cap the same exact way they always do. Nothing more.

If you told me that I would think you don't have a very deep understanding of income taxes.

But I see you've already built in a way to dismiss the arguments of anyone who disagrees with you.

 

[joestevens29]

Different Teams have different advantages. What are you going to do even it up when Player A takes less money to play for Team A over Team B that has the exact same taxes?

If you are a team with higher taxes, then you have to your best to do other things to make your Team attractive.