"Gubmint do take a bite, don't she?"
Some countries are actually paying their athletes for winning Gold medals.
Ours’ makes them pay.
What a Country!
Will John F’n Kerry have to pay tax on his Nobel? I’ll bet he claims selling out Israel as a business expense.
Ok; is this a new thing; or the way it has always been?
Taxes on prizes seems fair, but I think there should be some way for Olympians or similar to have help paying them.
Everyone winning prizes of any monetary value does have to pay about 50% of their winnings, but let’s put some common sense into this. We won $35k of concert tickets from AT&T. It was fair for us, or lottery winners, to pay taxes on that. But we sat on our butts and won. An Olympic athlete often trains for a decade or two, makes many sacrifices, his family even makes many (including financial) sacrifices, and somehow it seems wrong as anything for them to pay taxes on an object they would never sell.
Everyone knows that if you are poor, and you win a car for being in oprahs audience, sell it to pay the taxes, and you come away with half the car’s worth. No Olympian wants to sell his or her medal. It doesn’t seems fair or common sense.
Olympic gold is worth $25,000; silver $15,000; and bronze $10,000.
Are they REAL GOLD? Or is this the going rate on eBay?
And a bronze medal is worth a lot less. Is there a cash prize with the medals?
If they say that it’s income, then athletes can claim expenses associated with receiving that income. Equipment, ice rink rental, airfare, trainers, etc.
Is this the way to treat athlets who give glory to their homeland?
They need to tell the IRS to take a hike.
did this ever happen before ?
This is based on the cash stipends the USOC is giving to medalists. Not based on some “value” of the medal. IOW, the athletes are receiving $25,000 cash for gold etc. This is the same as any athletes receiving a salary or bonus.
Gotta pay for that “free” ObamaCare somehow and these athletes are among some of the few Americans still working.
Congress has yet to exempt the winnings from Olympics from the recipients. Until Congress acts, the winnings are includible in income. There is no surprise here. But, like some of the other posters are noting, the athletes are also allowed to deduct the expenses associated with their training, travel, and equipment. That is not insignificant.
"Gubmint do take a bite, don't she?"
Thanks SeekAndFind.
thats just the disincentive our athletes need to lose bigtime..
Anyone that wins a medal should just vacation for 18 months before coming home, tax free.
The athletes should explore the idea of leaving such medals in Russia for safekeeping...
This is satire, right?
Even the gay athletes have to pay out the ass? No exemption for them?
That gold medal? Someone stole it from my doorless room in Sochi. Yeah, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.