Racetrack owners are revving up their efforts to protect the ‘NASCAR tax break’ from critics who portray it as pure corporate pork. The provision, which allows motor sports tracks to use a shorter depreciation schedule, is among the more than 50 tax preferences that expired at the end of 2013 after Congress failed to pass a so-called ‘extenders’ bill. Fiscal watchdogs say the motor sports tax break, enacted in 2004, is the kind of narrow giveaway that gives the U.S. tax code a bad name, and lump it in with other extenders provisions that support the Puerto Rican rum industry and thoroughbred horses. With that in mind, motor sports officials have accelerated their own lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill to battle back against a shorthand – ‘NASCAR tax break’ – they say is misleading. John Saunders, the president of the International Speedway Corporation (ISC), acknowledged that motor sports advocates have a tough fight against ‘a sexy sound bite.’
‘It’s an asterisk in the extenders, yet it gets all this attention, mischaracterized,’ said Saunders, whose company owns the Daytona International Speedway in Florida, the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama and about a dozen other NASCAR tracks. Congress is expected to restore at least some of the expired tax provisions by the end of the year, and motor sports companies are employing high-priced K Street talent to help them land in the winner’s circle. There are roughly 1,200 auto racetracks in the U.S., according to industry advocates, the vast majority of which are small, local operations that aren’t affiliated with the big leagues of NASCAR. Allowing those tracks to write off costs over a seven-year span lets them pour money back into their businesses, racetrack advocates say, spurring economic growth in individual communities around the country.(see full article at The Hill)(7-16-2014)
