Buchanan files bill to remove PGA Tour’s tax-exempt status after Saudi-backed merger agreement

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., and Mike Thompson, D-Calif., introduced bipartisan legislation to rescind the tax-exempt status of the PGA Tour.

The proposal, H.R. 6774, stems after the PGA Tour announced a merger with Saudi-funded LIV GOLF into a single for-profit entity. The major organizer of professional golf, the PGA Tour, is exempt from paying federal income taxes as a nonprofit.

“With billions of dollars in annual revenue and record profits streaming in, coupled with their looming partnership with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, why in the world should hardworking American taxpayers subsidize the PGA’s tax-exempt status?” Buchanan said in a release.

Buchanan also prioritized “supporting local charities on Main Street” over foreign-financed professional sports organizations like LIV GOLF. He added the group is “not dedicated to benefiting the American people.”

In June 2023, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf agreed to join forces to unify golf on a global basis. Few details of the agreement, however, have since been made public.

The proposal allows the Saudi Public Investment Fund to contribute “its golf-related commercial business and rights (including LIV Golf), along with a significant financial investment, toward minority equity ownership of a new, collectively held, for-profit LLC.”

“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan said at the time.

Other major sports organizations, such as Major League Baseball and the National Football League, notably removed their tax-exempt statuses respectively in 2007 and 2015. The National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer also do not have a non-profit status.

According to Golfweek, the PGA Tour produced nearly $2 billion in revenue in 2022, up from $1.59 billion in 2021. The bill specifically targets sports leagues with gross incomes of $1 billion or more over the last five tax years.

“Nonprofit tax treatment should be reserved for institutions and charities that help everyday Americans – not billion-dollar sports leagues backed by Saudi government money,” Thompson said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to achieve that goal as the PGA and LIV continue their negotiations.”