Looking at NHRA’s 2010  Tax Return

by Jeff Burk

It's January 2012, and that means it's time for DRO’s annual review of the National Hot Rod Association's most recently released (2010) Tax Returns. Overall, they're a mixed bag.

The first bad news we saw was that 2010 marked the second straight year the company has shown a drop in gross revenues. The good news is that in 2010 the NHRA gross income was only down around $3,000,000, as opposed to 2009 when the gross was down about $15,000,000 from the previous year's (2008)  gross. That is progress. 

The total amount of money paid out in salaries in 2010 was $17.8 million, which is just about the same as they paid in 2009. About $3.5 million of the $17.8 was paid to a group of employees listed under the heading Compensation for Officers, Directors, Trustees, Key Employees, Highest Compensated Employees, and Independent Contractors. That is over $100,000 less than was paid in 2009. Despite the fact that less was paid for these key employees, Tom Compton, Peter Clifford, and Graham Light all received minor raises in 2010.

In 2010, the top four executives got an approximately $10,000 raise. Mr Compton was paid $712,189 in 2010 compared to $701,257 in 09, Peter Clifford received $416,497 in ‘10 compared to $382,983 in ‘09. Gary Darcy was paid $380.527 in ‘10 and $370,000+ in ‘09.

The biggest change that occured was Dallas Gardner, who was paid $330,053 in ‘09, saw his compensation drop to $121,359 in ‘10.

Perusing the document, a couple of items jump out. The NHRA paid ESPN Inc. $495,857 for an “announcer”. I assume that would be ESPN on-air talent. I interpret  that number to be what the NHRA pays for Paul Page, Mike Dunn, et al. The NHRA also paid the International Merchandising Corp of Cleveland $400,547 for Sales Consulting.

Finally, the NHRA showed expenses that  totaled  $17,000,000 for NHRA Broadcasting, which is way more than the $15.7+ million the 2009 return showed.

And of course the return does indicate that they spent more than they took in. Thus, the not-for-profit profile is satisfied.

For your further entertainment and enlightenment, we have scanned a few of the more informative pages of the return.

Click on a form to enlarge it.Go to www.dragracingonline.com to view these pages.