ICANN has published it’s Federal tax return form 990 for the tax year ending on June 30, 2012 all 68 pages of it.
According to the filing, ICANN ended its fiscal year with $466 Million in Assets and $388 Million in Liabilities therefore showing a net asset balance of over $83 Million up $3 Million from the year before.
ICANN paid almost $28 Million in Salaries including $7.1 Million paid to 36 people listed by ICANN as Directors, Officers , Key employees and Highest Paid Employees.
ICANN ended its fiscal year with a huge cash hoard from the application fees from the new gTLD program with about $382 Million in cash and $53 Million in publicly traded securities.
However ICANN is showing almost all of the fees from the new gTLD program as a liability as well for reserves and expenses, thereby only increasing their net assets to $83,591,000 only up some $2.9 million from the end of its fiscal year ending June 30, 2011.
There are 83 people who received more than $100,000 of reportable compensation from the organization for the fiscal year ending in June 30, 2012
Here is the tax return:
fy-2012-form-990-en
Does anyone want to tell me how ICANN is a non-profit with these kinds of numbers?
I understand that nonprofit organizations can make money to further their company, but nonprofits are typically not allowed to distribute profits or dividends. And with 83 people making more than $100,000…. Where is the line on paying amazing salaries and distributing profits? As a taxpayer I feel like ICANN is putting more burden on everyone else. But it is clearly a business that is 100% business oriented.
I understand why they reported net assets that only grew by $3 million. Because the applications right now are a liability to them. But lets be realistic. The $382 million in liabilities is just massive profit in a year or two. I suspect it will sit there as a liability for a long time even though it is not really a liability, and they will probably just decrease that liability by $20 million a year to make it “look” more appropriate.
This gives a whole new meaning to low-ballers who constantly tell domainers “but I’m a non-profit”. All of a sudden I realize being a non-profit does not mean you might not be raking in cash.
“Non Profit or Not-for Profit: that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind that Not-for-Profits are permitted to generate surplus revenues that must be retained by the organization for its expansion, its plans or its self preservation”…etc (W.Shakespeare) E &OE
kd: I’ve been pointing out the excessive compensation of ICANN staff for years. It’s an annual tradition, when the IRS Form 990 is released. Hopefully the ‘powers that be’ (e.g. Department of Commerce, Department of Justice, NTIA, Congress, GAC, etc.) start to realize that ICANN has not been acting as a trusted custodian/steward of the DNS, but has instead been acting like a profit-making entity, seeking to squeeze out as much as it can to benefit insiders, at the expense of the public.
We saw the DOC/NTIA/DOJ reject the VeriSign contract renewal which ICANN pretended to negotiate (which had guaranteed price increases), and instead required a price freeze (although, that’s not as good as an open tender, which would have resulted in much lower prices). Perhaps numbers like these for ICANN staff compensation will finally light a fire under these agencies, to dig deeper to examine into what ICANN is doing.
Some might say it’s a “Criminal Operation” !