College Football Teams Mount Blitz to Lock In Donors' Tax Breaks

Bloomberg reports:

Colleges are rushing to help wealthy donors lock in a federal tax break, which subsidizes the sales of college sports tickets and costs taxpayers $200 million a year.

As part of the tax overhaul, lawmakers scrapped a provision that enables alumni and other boosters to consider much of the cost of buying season tickets -- and even $60,000-a-year luxury boxes -- as tax-deductible charitable contributions. Some members of Congress have long considered the 30-year-old practice an abuse of the tax code.

Now, universities are encouraging alumni to prepay their tickets before the law changes Jan. 1 -- and not just for 2018. Some, including the University of South Carolina and the University of Oklahoma are accepting up-front seat payments for three years; the University of Georgia would take five; Notre Dame, ten -- at least, “in theory,” according to spokesman Paul Browne. Oklahoma State has set no limit.

Notre Dame notified about 4,500 football season-ticket holders about the potential advantage of prepayment and have heard a “significant response,” Browne said.

Republicans sure went after their enemies on this tax code change!