Jeremy Jacobs is going to war with the Internal Revenue Service. (Ok, now that we’ve had a good laugh….) The Boston Bruins decided to file suit against the IRS over how the organization spends money on paying to feed the team while they’re playing away games.
More from Bruins News
- Bruins release Prospects Challenge roster, schedule Tuesday
- Bruins bringing back familiar forward on tryout contract
- The Bruins should take a look at these four free agents
- NHL Network lists Ullmark as sixth-best goalie in the league
- The Lasting Legacy of David Krejci
The government argues that feeding the team during away games counts as an entertainment expense (entertainment, amusement or recreation category), and therefore shouldn’t be considered deductible. (The IRS tagged the Bruins organization in an audit for 2009-10 and declared that the B’s owed the government eighty-five thousand dollars.) The Bruins legal argument put forth in Jacobs v. Commissioner argues that the Bruins organization should be allowed to deduct 100% of meal expenses for business purposes.
While a lot of us may not be fans of Jeremy Jacobs, he’s got an interesting and (in my lay legal opinion) a pretty valid argument.
When the Boston Bruins are playing away from the TD Garden, any hotel they stay at becomes a temporary headquarters for the organization. The Bruins are asking for the government to acknowledge that. Also, there does seem to be a fair amount of precedence. Professional teams and athletes often tag equipment and things necessary for their job as a professional expense. The Bruins are just trying to include the team meals as part of the expense.
“For each away game, the Bruins travel to the away city and set up a base of operations at a local hotel,” the Bruins wrote in its argument. “The away city hotel is the club’s business premises during the club’s travels in the away city.”
I’m a corporate banquet chef in my “9-to-5” job. I’ve had the pleasure of cooking for the Bruins organization in the past. When the organization would send my employer a request, the meal plan would be heavy on the carbohydrates and proteins. Portion sizes would be double (or more) than usual. The Bruins wouldn’t just eat at these functions. There would be impromptu strategy sessions, and it wasn’t that unusual to hear a game plan being discussed as food was being brought in and plates being cleared away.
Puck Prose
“A business retreat where all employees are required to dine together would be very similar,” said Philip Garrett Panitz, a tax attorney at Panitz & Kossoff, a law firm in Westlake Village, California sent to the Boston Globe. “The Bruins need to show that this is an ordinary and necessary business expense. I think they have a good argument.”
“In short, the pregame mandatory meals and the meetings at away city hotels allow the club and the players to prepare for the upcoming game — both physically and mentally,” . “In this regard, the pregame meals and the meetings serve as a necessary component of the Bruins’ hockey operations.” – Argument attributed to Jeremy Jacobs in Jacobs v. Commissioner
The National Hockey League is backing the Bruins organization in this argument. Deputy NHL commissioner Bill Daly released a statement supporting the Bruins in their legal argument. If the Bruins win the case, it would certainly effect how the thirty teams in the NHL do business.
“The league supports the position that the club is taking in the case and is therefore coordinating the litigation for the potential benefit of all of its member clubs,” said Daly in the statement. “This is often done in individual club cases where the outcome may or will have an effect on a large number of similarly situated clubs or the league as a whole.”