** IRS will take your assets if you are behind with them. Don’t let
this happen to you.
Call us at 573-341-5578 before you let it go this far but thought you
might be interested in the article.
12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, August 28, 2010
By
KAREN ROBINSON-JACOBS / The Dallas Morning News
Just as momentum builds for the first Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium,
one ticket holder is being forced to hand over season tickets and stadium seat
licenses to settle an IRS tax debt.
The Internal
Revenue Service plans to auction the six-seat package Tuesday, with bidding
starting at about $185,000.
It's the first time in at least five years that a season ticket package for
any professional sports team has been auctioned to settle a debt, said Clay
Sanford, an IRS spokesman in Dallas.
Sanford said the agency's privacy rules prevented him from identifying the
ticket holder. But a document relating to the auction shows the federal
government is owed $4.5 million.
Technically, the IRS is auctioning off two contracts offering licenses, or
"options," for six seats. Included in the package are 2010 season
tickets for the six seats and parking for the 10 home games.
The licenses grant the holder the right to buy season tickets for a given
seat for 30 years. Licenses for those seats sell for $50,000 each, said Cowboys
spokesman Brett Daniels.
That would be $300,000 for the six licenses up for bid.
All of the seats are in section C110 between the 40 and 50 yard lines on the
lower level, the first level up from the field. The auction includes parking
for the 2010 season.
Season tickets purchased from the Cowboys would be $3,400 for each seat
($340 a game for 10 games, not counting postseason play.) The parking pass is
$750, making the Cowboys' price for the package at least $321,000.
The IRS has set a minimum bid of $185,421 for the package.
In addition, the winning bidder will have to pay the Cowboys an additional
$70,000 still due on the contracts and to cover transfer fees.
The auction is at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Federal Building on Alpha Road in Farmers
Branch. Sanford said items are generally auctioned in the county in which
they are seized.
Daniels said the Cowboys aren't concerned that the forced sale bodes ill for
other ticket-holding fans.
"We had a 98 [to] 99 percent renewal rate on our season tickets, which
is a better reflection of our fan support," he said. "This was an
isolated incident."
Only 1 percent of IRS collections activity ends in seizure and sale, Sanford
said.
