MettaWorldPanda wrote:Flash4thewin wrote:For everyone taking about the Tax bill the Sun have, remember it is considered an in the course of business transaction and thus can be deducted from any income made reducing the tax liability they have. So just for arguments sake lets say the Suns made 200 mill, and the tax bill is 200 mil, for tax purposes they made nothing and thus would have no tax liability. Then remember the owners are billionaires so it's not just the Sun they own, this can and will be applied against any other profits made by the owner. We always talk about the tax as a negative but ignore how it can be used proactively to save the owner money.
Billionaire owners don’t stay rich paying record tax bills for poor products. The repeater tax is going to be a huge problem for them after all the previous year’s spending. You are talking some real tax gymnastics almost making it seem like it’s ok for the owner to keep flushing money down the toilet. This is in a league where our current owner himself fights tooth and nail to avoid repeater or even luxury tax. All reports are saying the Suns want to get desperately out of the tax. If they desperately want out of the tax it’s for extreme common sense reasons and not the gymnastics presented above. They are also concerned about the harsh penalties in staying in the second apron. They can barely get just below the 2nd by releasing Martin and Micic but still have to cut a bunch of salary to reset the repeater tax clock.
I think you are missing the big picture here. Billionaires generally make money. They have to pay taxes on those gains. Here the team can be used as part of the write off. Remember the value of the team goes up, the brand of the team etc all go up, exposure etc goes up but from a fiscal taxable standpoint because of the tax they are a loss. The Clippers ownership has used this advantage. If you are generating Billions, spending that money on a side pet project like an NBA team instead of paying the tax liability is a more preferable option.
A better counter argument to make would be the owner is not making money and thus negating all of this. Take the Heat for instance. Mickey money comes from the cruise ship industry which has taken a hit these past few years. They have been in the red, so they would have no incentive to use this tactic.
