Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

x3...

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

I'm surprised this is just coming to light with the IRS.. We as racers are suckers, being fed leftovers for years, revolt!

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

No I don't; but I am just surprised that it took someone 30 yrs. to do something. (I realize that this probably isn't the first time someone has tried to bring it to light in a serious manner; but most of the time people are content in just complaining about it - me included).

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

I couldn't agree with you more Mike!!!

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

More on the subject from another source, Forbes:

http://bit.ly/g2Aa8f

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Sometimes it takes a while to pile that last straw on the camel's back. Evidently, after taking advantage of racers for years, they've finally reached the limit of some guys. Actually, a lot of guys. There are people not racing, there are people only going to combo races, and there are people selling all their stuff and going fishing, hunting, camping, bowling, or golfing.

I notice people seem to want to attribute this to one person in particular. There might be one person leading it in name, but if I were a betting man, I'd be willing to bet there are more than a couple of people behind the guy who went to see the lawyer.

A lot of the hard core racers from back in the day are watching their legacy disappear. Guys who are younger (I'm almost 50 now, and I'm a relative youngster) who know those guys are tired of seeing their friends and mentors pushed aside and driven from the sport. I know I'm sick of it, they've stolen the sport from guys I grew up watching, and I'm watching people I know who could and would still be out there racing parking and/or selling their stuff. Those guys lived this stuff all of their lives, and now the sport they love, what they live for, has been taken from them, for money.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Well said, Alan.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Okay, I know this may "offend" some people: But, look at the huge salaries these guys make, and if a stock class car wins in the final round, what is the payout? I have seen guys do the foot race at bracket races and get bigger payouts. Is this a point made? I know the contigency money is usually larger than winners check, but, this has been a restraining clause for me to not become a class racer. All the sportsman class racers are making these guys rich.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

If it were only the salaries, it wouldn't be a problem. It's not any one thing, it's any number of things. It's not just the payouts, either. There are a multitude of problems.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

I wonder if this un-named person who filed the complaint might not be one of the Track Owners who has been strong armed by NHRA management one to many times.
Just a thought.
Rick Cates

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Apparently they're not gonna tell us ???????

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

NEWS FLASH

Stock prices of the Acme Paper Shredding Co. more than tripled on news of the company's record breaking largest single order. Acme will be paid a premium for "Quick" delivery.The Glendora, CA. company that placed the order has requested to remain anonymous.

On a side note shares of UPS and Fed EX were up 38% based upon a projected spike in overnight deliveries.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Just wondering why it is important who it might be? Whoever it might be, just be thankful to them for doing something that benefits everyone. Well at least those of us being abused for years.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

No kidding. Somebody stepped up. And I'd say they can't talk about it right now.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Well, BN might not be the anonymous client, but I would bet he knows who is. He has been saying something is in the works for a long time. I thought it was well known.

Here's a couple posts I found:


-Toby

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

All i have to say is YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW wonder what the harvest will be?

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Yes, for NHRA and us racers.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Has the NHRA made a statement yet?

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

The only public response NHRA has made can be found in this article:

http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-...hra-tax-status

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Have you ever wondered what racing would look like if the LGC gang had been able to cash out with the sale of NHRA Pro to HD? The gang figured out how to sell something they didn't own.

May their greed cause their demise.

It will be attempted again if the IRS doesn't make something happen first.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

See, there is a perfect example of how NHRA is NOT being operated as a 501(c) non profit organization.

NHRA was a runaway train, hurtling toward the end of the spur, and dragging sportsman racing with it. OUR part of NHRA was on a disastrous road to the end game.

Of course, everyone could have stood by and watched it all happen, and then when the end came, complain because it happened.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

There's an old saying that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". In my opinion the lack of accountability that management and the board have had for years plays in to that old saying. Management and the board are the same people and are not accountable to anyone. They do what they please, they pay themselves what they please with no concern with how it affects all of us. Most 501-C6 tax exempt organizations are accountable to their members. In fact according to IRS rules they must be membership based organizations with a high degree of membership involvement.

Look at the NFL, the members are the owners of the teams, the owners pick a board and hire the CEO, who is accountable to the team owners. SEMA is another good example of a 501-C6 organization. The members vote on board members who in turn hire a person to run the organization. The management is accountable to the board and the board is accountable to the members. The lack of accountability is what's led to the shape NHRA finds themselves in right now.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Non Profit Organization: Surprisingly, there is no legal defination of a non Profit organization. In general, a non profit organization is one that is organized to achieve a purpose other than generating a profit. Despite this, a N.P.O is not precluded from making a profit or engaging in profit-making activities. It is prohibited from passing along any profits to those individual who control it, like founders, directors, officers, employees and members. Nothing, however, prevents a N.P.O from paying reasonable salaries to officers, employees, and others who perform a service for it. All this information is available on the IRS tax code section 501(c)(3). Certain NPO that are exempt from Federal Corporate Income taxes must show to keep their exemption documentation that their not engaging in any political, legislative or entertaining activities. In California it's Illegal for any employees to derive a higher rate of pay than a comparable for profit organization of the same financial volume. You must remember the tricky word in this which is (reasonable). Gross revenu= reasonable salaries. Compton might get away with it but not the rest of the Directors. These guys have alot of to explain, without even considering that most of it's voting member were never asked to have a say in it's operation. I've been after NHRA to show me were and when we gaved them our voting rights to them to do whatever they wanted to do with them, and they never did. I do not want the IRS to put their nose under our tent because when they do move in for the audit, it could damage NHRA to the point of total destruction. CR

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

CR,

With all due respect, you're kidding right? NHRA has been on the path of self destruction all on it's own. In fairness most sporting venues are pricing themselves out of business but this is suppose to be something other than a business, or at least that's what a vast majority of the people on here believe.
Forget about the ever rising fees, the insurance, the puinitive damages for riding your unregistered scooter. :( Need I say more?

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Sportsman racing just might have been given a new chance at survival. After this all falls out it might be time for membership to take control of their future. It will be interesting to see where the money trail leads.
Just a thought--funny how the V10 drag pak program got put back at about the same time the IRS problems went public NAHHHHHHH !!!!!

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Besides nhra is not a (c) 3

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

only the museum is 501(c)(3)

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

After all of this IRS stuff goes down the only place you guys with the 1972 and older cars might be able to race are the Nostalgia races, local circuit races, and/or bracket events. The rest who are stuck with the $100,000 plus new under rated DP's, Mustangs, and FI cars might as well make flower pots out of them, bracket cars, and or street rides.....LOL.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Quite possibly nothing is going to change after NHRA pays some sort of fine but if somehow NHRA loses its sanction, Division 1 will be fine operating under some sort of Dave Ley controlled Divisional Series. Division 1 has 128 cars at just about every National Events, Divisional, and Open series race.

Plus I like the idea of one guy who is committed to the sport running the show and not someone who paints NHRA cars on the side.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

I agree. I don't think much change will trickle down to us. They will just pay any fines (if it comes to that) and get back to business. It's just business.
I don't think it's any of my business.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

I wouldn't be too sure that you just pay fines when you operate a 501(c) as a for profit entertainment corporation. There may be other significant penalties and sanctions. If the violations are serious enough, and flagrant, the board can be removed completely.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Agree 1000%. That would be a great deal with Dave in charge.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Wonder what the two new board members think of this?

If a press release gets issued about one of them leaving for "personel reasons" we will know.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

its definitely going to be interesting to watch

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Just ran across this.

DRAW PAYS OUT A WHOPPING 220K IN 2010!

The 2011-2012 BOARD of TRUSTEES for the Drag Racing Association of Women includes Vicki Aswege, Kevin Bennett, Karen Comstock, Carol Gibbs, Beth Hyatt, Elise Mauntel, Sarah McLemore, Rosalee Noble, Pat Shaeffer, Yokie Van Vallis, Ashley Yost and Tracy Winters. The alternate Board Members are: Allison Kuhn and Lynne Van Vallis.

Wouldn't it be nice if the racing side of the sport had people you could trust.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

a little over 15k average each? i don't see a problem here.

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Are you sure that's not the annual payout to needy/sick racers?

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

THE $220,000 DRAW PAYOUT IS TO INJURED RACERS---not DRAW personnel----Comp387

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

Tom Compton made over $700,000 a year????? Dang,.... I bet there are some track operators that don't even make that much !! That's getting up there in hemi engine builder
territory !

Re: The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.
 

There is no way this can ever turn out well for racers if the IRS rules that NHRA is not eligible to be a non-profit.

At best, NHRA would be forced to begin paying tax on funds from operations, which will increase costs by 35%, and those costs will be passed along to YOU. How is that good?

And that's only a best-case scenario. The IRS can impute back taxes for as far back as the statute of limitations allows, which could be 7 or even 10 years in some cases. Plus penalties and interest. The organization would either have to shut down, sell out, or seek new capital from a public offering, if the market will support it. None of these are good choices.

A publicly traded entity must, by law, maximize profit for its shareholders, or face lawsuits. The hard truth is that the national events generate piles of cash from spectator and sponsor revenue. The back-gate from sportsman racing is a small fraction of the total.

A for-profit NHRA may have no choice but reduce or eliminate sportsman racing. Not because it loses money, but because the resources can be used more profitably on professional categories. This would certainly be the case if it was owned by a publicly traded corporation.

Some of you think a sportsman-only, combo-racing organization would be preferable. But I can tell you without fear of contradiction that the quality race tracks that were built in the 1990's could never have been funded if they didn't have the prospect of a cash producing NHRA national event to show the bankers and investors. And say goodbye to sponsorships that underwrite some of the pro-sportsman operations in full.

Worst of all, they might have to close down. And to shut it down would be absolutely criminal. Garlits, Prudhomme, Muldowney, Jenkins, Sox, Nicholson- all NHRA legends- 50+ years of history and tradition could be lost, all because some cranky, short-sighted individual thinks Dallas Gardner and Tom Compton make too much money. You'll wish that was your biggest problem.