Insult to injury.
Posted on 09/23/2004 10:26:37 AM PDT by Peace4EarthNow
Leave it to Uncle Sam to spoil the party.
When Oprah Winfrey gave away 276 cars last week to the audience of her show, images of people laughing, jumping, crying -- some hysterically -- filled the airwaves and the giveaway became stuff of legend. Late night talk show hosts and newspaper columnists are still talking about it.
But now some of those eager prizewinners have a choice: Fork over $7,000 or give up the car.
According to a spokeswomen for Harpo Productions Inc., Oprah's company, the recipients must pay a tax on the winnings, just like any prize.
For a brand new Pontiac G-Six, the model given away on the show, the sticker price is $28,500. The $28,500 would need to be claimed as income so, depending on the individuals tax bracket, the tax could be as high as $7,000. And that was after Pontiac agreed to pay most of the local charges, including state sales tax and licensing fees.
The Harpo Spokeswomen said winners had three choices. They could keep the car and pay the tax, sell the car and pay the tax with the profits or forfeit the car.
I wonder how the audience members feel about their prize now. It sounds like some of them were pretty needy to begin with.
this was my point when it happened. Then I read that GM was picking up the whole tab. now it seems that I was correct in the first place.
killing with kindness?
This is not a surprise. The obvious thing for most of them to do is sell the car.
Or, if Oprah doesn't have some deal with the manufacturer, she good give them money in lieu of the car, and they could use part of the cash they get to pay the tax, and the remainder to buy a cheaper car if that's what they want.
Insult to injury.
There's another option: Set the car on fire, collect the insurance money, and pay the tax.
The idiot option.
Sell the car back to the dealer (the markdown will be minimal - the care will still be sold as "new") then pocket the 18K+ and stop bitching.
$7000.00 for a new car? Damn good deal in my book.
WONDERFUL!! I wonder how many of these poor democrats will turn to republican now
Look, if they were given a $28,000 car and they've got to pay $7,000 in taxes, they're $21,000 ahead. Only in America could someone gripe, carp and bitch about that.
Of course this was going to happen. Now it's Oprah's turn to let the air hit her wallet.
Ain't Oprah's fault. Let them take it up with their Congressmen.
In a society where everyone is a victim, it's hard for these victims to blame anyone over this one.
Lesson #1 in the "Somethin for nuthin" rule of life.
Fugly, where would you put the rifle rack and brush gaurds?
Is there a Diesel option? Tow package? I'm needing a little help here.
...go to jail for arson and insurance fraud.
No wholesale or retail value added hands involved whatsoever.
Cars were an ad rev. write-off.
The factory has to make more than demand to lower cost per unit.
And on & on.
Come on, jump in creative minds.
Oh give me a break. If the taxes are too much, they can sell the car and buy a cheaper one. A brand new, under 100 miles $28,500 car should be able to be sold used for at least $23K, -$7K tax payments, nets each person at least $16K. So each recipient is still ahead $16K+, an incredible gift.
One can easily buy a nice 2 year old used car and pay the taxes on $16K.
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