The N.F.L.’s league office will drop its tax-exempt status, which is decades old, in response to critics, including some members of Congress, who say that the government is losing millions of dollars in potential revenue.

As a result, the league will no longer have to publicly disclose its tax returns, which include the salaries of its top executives, including Commissioner Roger Goodell. Major League Baseball took a similar step several years ago. The league offices of the N.H.L., the L.P.G.A. and several other sports organizations still have tax-exempt status.

Though the N.F.L.’s 32 teams are for-profit businesses and pay taxes, the league office has operated as a tax-exempt industry association in various forms since the 1940s. Under the tax code, the league office is considered the marketing arm of the teams, creating rules, negotiating sponsorships and television deals and performing other centralized functions. As a tax-exempt organization, the N.F.L. has had to release its Form 990 returns.

For years, former Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, criticized the league’s status, contending that it deprived the United States Treasury of millions of dollars in taxes. The chorus of critics rose in 2014 when the league office’s filings with the Internal Revenue Service showed that Goodell received $44.2 million in the 2012 fiscal year. Goodell was paid $35 million in 2013.