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The New York Giants football team, whose home field is in East Rutherford, N.J., seeks to benefit from a $1.5 million tax break New Jersey approved four years ago to retain jobs of the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

The transfer appears on the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s agenda for its meeting today as “application of Ernst & Young LLP to transfer unused tax credits to the New York Football Giants Inc.”

The Giants may get the tax credit because Ernst & Young’s corporate structure, as a limited liability partnership, precludes it from using tax credits awarded in 2005. New Jersey gave Ernst & Young the credits as an incentive to keep 1,002 workers in the state during a 2005 corporate restructuring, according to Nicole Royle, a spokeswoman for the Economic Development Authority.

The firm qualified for the credit against income taxes by shifting workers from a location in Lyndhurst to a new $60 million facility in Secaucus in 2007, state Commerce Commission records of the deal show.

Ernst & Young plans to use a provision of the incentive program that lets firms sell unused credits at a discount.

It found a ready receiver in the Giants, the National Football League franchise that is building a $1.3 billion stadium with the New York Jets in the New Jersey Meadowlands.

The accounting firm will still book the bulk of the benefit from the tax break.

The Giants are scheduled to pay Ernst & Young $1.2 million for the tax break, according to a proposed agreement under review by the Economic Development Authority. That will leave the Giants with a net savings of $300,000.

The sum is almost enough to cover the $310,000 minimum salary for an untested rookie, or 15 licenses for the right to buy tickets in the new stadium’s best locations.

The football teams’ new home is scheduled to open for the 2010 football season.

(Source: Bloomberg)