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.
I dont know. Seems like they gave up their time, energy and expertise in exchange for the prize. Hardly seems like gain to me. Unless, that is, one sees their time, energy, and expertise as having no value. But that’s just one crazy man’s opinion! :)
The dumb jerks in the government think they own everything...its hateful.