'Nobody cared for nearly 3 decades': NHL's Florida tax advantage debate intensifies online

Time of India

2 days ago

Paul Bissonnette (via Getty Images)
Last week, former NHL player Paul Bissonnette added fuel to the fire when he implied the NHL could be forced to address how Florida teams benefit from the absence of a state income tax in the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
'The fact that Florida, not only is it an unbelievable team, an unbelievable market, but the fact that you're not paying state tax,' he said. 'That is an advantage that maybe has to be addressed in the next CBA. That's a conversation for another day.'
But is it truly a game-changer — or merely a handy cop-out?
Paul Bissonnette thinks NHL may need to address Florida's lack of state tax
Paul Bissonnette argues that Florida players get to keep more of their paycheck since there is no state income tax.
'The fact that Florida, not only is it an unbelievable team, an unbelievable market, but the fact that you're not paying state tax,' he said. 'That is an advantage that maybe has to be addressed in the next CBA. That's a conversation for another day.'
Reddit users react to Paul Bissonette's tax argument
On Reddit, hockey fans fought back hard. Users noted that states such as Tennessee, Texas, and Nevada also have no state income tax, but teams based there have experienced wildly differing success.
"What big free agents have the Florida teams stolen because of their income tax? And why haven't Seattle, Dallas, Nashville, and Vegas also exploited this cheat code?' someone noted.
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Others were quick to point out to the hockey world that Florida franchises were poor for decades before their current prosperity, implying organizational ability counts more than tax incentives. "Nobody cared for nearly 3 decades; now that Florida teams are consistently competitive, it matters," another wrote.
One commentator summarized it well: "Players are taxed based on where their regular-season games take place, not which team they play for. When the Panthers have a game in New York State or California or wherever, all Panther players pay that state income tax for 1/82nd of their annual salary. Do the math and it turns out that players for the teams in Florida are state-income-tax free on around 2/3rds of their annual salaries, while players for the Islanders/Rangers/etc are state-income-tax free on around 1/3rd of their annual salaries.
So the accurate statement is that players for teams in Florida "are paying about half as much state income taxes" as the players for the teams in New York and other high-state-income-tax states. That is a difference, and hence arguably an advantage in attracting free agents....but it's pretty marginal. The actual amount of difference is a really small percentage of annual net pay."
One of the Redditors gave another perspective to the discussion: "No one complained about it when the Lightning and Panthers stunk."
While taxes have an impact on player take-home pay, the discussion among fans and analysts is unanimous: organizational strategy, talent development, and culture win championships. Florida's recent success is probably a mix of all these things, not only the sunshine and tax breaks.
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As the NHL heads into its next CBA, tax fairness will remain an issue of contention. For the time being, however, hockey fans appear more concerned about what transpires on the ice, rather than the tax code.