According to TaxProf.org and Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal there are some potential problems with the Major League Baseball’s October 2006 Tax return.
"MLB did not include the compensation amounts for its other top officers in its most recent return. The names of MLB President Bob DuPuy and four executive vice presidents are listed but without pay totals. Those numbers appeared in prior MLB tax returns, with DuPuy pulling in a total of $4.875 million in the 2005 fiscal year.
Nonprofit tax experts said such omissions are not permissible under the current tax code. "The [tax return] instructions just couldn’t be clearer. The compensation of the officers, directors and key employees must be disclosed in the return," said Marcus Owens, former director of the IRS’s exempt organizations division and currently an attorney with Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, D.C., representing a variety of nonprofits.
Said DuPuy of that assessment, "We respectfully disagree."
Leaving out officer compensation in Part 5-A of the nonprofit return could be considered an incomplete return and could subject MLB to fines up to $50,000 per year from the IRS, Owens said."
