Breaking Down the Business Plan of the PGA Tour: Is It a Nonprofit?

Publish date: 2024-06-06

Is the PGA Tour a nonprofit? The golf organization rapidly introduced in June 2023 that it will merge with Saudi-backed LIV Golf.

Source: PGA Tour

In an sudden flip of events, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are merging. The professional golf leagues, alongside the DP World Tour, announced in June 2023 that they would combine their industrial rights into a new for-profit venture funded by the Public Investment Fund.

As anticipated, many players and enthusiasts had been surprised via the PGA Tour's willingness to paintings with LIV Golf after stating it would never work with the Saudi-backed league. Others have discussed the PGA Tour's nonprofit standing — wait, is that actual? Is the PGA Tour truly a nonprofit? Let's to find out.

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Is the PGA Tour a nonprofit group?

As a subject of truth, yes — the PGA Tour is a nonprofit and operates as a tax-exempt nonprofit 501(c)6 organization.

The nonprofit standing has been scrutinized by means of many, including Congress. In March 2013, former Republication senator Tom Coburn offered an amendment that would eliminate tax breaks for sports leagues. U.S. Representative Greg Steube reintroduced the legislation to remove the PGA Tour's nonprofit standing in February 2022.

A few months later, on Aug. 24, 2022, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed that the league had no plans to resign its nonprofit status. He advised Golf Channel, "The 501(c)6 status and the integrity of that and all it does for us, that's always going to be a central fabric to who we are as an organization. It will always be that way."

As professional golf dominates the news lately with its merger of entities, is it time reassess the proven fact that the PGA is a tax-exempt nonprofit group by some means that skirts paying 100s of tens of millions in taxes?

— Paul Sznewajs 🇺🇦 (@paulsznewajs) June 6, 2023

"But that status, if you think about our impact in the communities where we play, our history, our legacy," the present commissioner, Jay Monahan, added, "that's a point of differentiation for our sport, that’s a point of differentiation for the Tour, and that will continue to be that way."

The tour doesn't pay federal taxes, and a 2013 report from ESPN determined that the PGA Tour's nonprofit fashion had allowed it to keep away from up to $two hundred million in federal taxes. When accused of now not paying its fair proportion, the PGA Tour famous that it donated billions of bucks to philanthropic reasons.

Despite merging with LIV Golf, the PGA Tour will stay a nonprofit.

On June 6, 2023, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf announced they agreed to merge their industrial rights, as neatly the ones of the DP World Tour, into a single, for-profit entity. The tour will remain a tax-exempt nonprofit 501(c)6 organization and retain full regulate over how its tournaments are performed.

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Under the settlement comes a new entity that may "work to ensure a cohesive schedule of events that will be exciting for fans, sponsors, and all stakeholders." The Public Investment Fund will first of all be the exclusive investor, along the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the DP World Tour.

"Going forward, PIF will have the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity, including into the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and DP World Tour. The PGA Tour will appoint a majority of the Board and hold a majority voting interest in the combined entity."

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