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Go for the Gold! (Pay the IRS.) [16 y/o Gold medalist owes taxes for medal]
Weekly Standard ^ | August 1, 2012 | JONATHAN V. LAST

Posted on 08/01/2012 2:30:10 PM PDT by NYer

Because conservatives are scrooges, the good folks at Americans for Tax Reform have gone through the fine print to find out what our Olympians will have to cough up to the IRS should they be lucky enough to win any medals in London.

london olympics

Even by the standards of our government, the numbers are insane.

For instance: Americans who win bronze will pay a $2 tax on the medal itself. But the bronze comes with a modest prize—$10,000 as an honorarium for devoting your entire life to being the third best athlete on the planet in your chosen discipline. And the IRS will take $3,500 of that, thank you very much.

There are also prizes that accompany each medal: $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze.

Silver medalists will owe $5,385. You win a gold? Timothy Geithner will be standing there with his hand out for $8,986.

So as of this writing, swimmer Missy Franklin—who's a high school student—is already on the hook for almost $14,000. By the time she's done in the pool, her tab could be much higher. (That is, unless she has to decline the prize money to placate the NCAA—the only organization in America whose nuttiness rivals the IRS.)

ATR notes that the real twist of the knife is that most other Olympians won't pay any taxes on their medals because America is one of only a handful of countries which taxes "worldwide" prize income earned overseas.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: athletes; gold; irs; medals; moneygrab; olympics
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1 posted on 08/01/2012 2:30:20 PM PDT by NYer
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To: All
swimmer Missy Franklin—who's a high school student—is already on the hook for almost $14,000.


Missy Franklin

2 posted on 08/01/2012 2:32:00 PM PDT by NYer (Without justice, what else is the State but a great band of robbers? - St. Augustine)
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To: NYer

They did not earn that. Somebody else made that happen. Did they drive on public roads? Gimme!


3 posted on 08/01/2012 2:33:32 PM PDT by Mikey_1962 (Obama: The Affirmative Action President.)
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To: NYer
<0bama>They didn't win those medals. Somebody else made it happen.</0bama>
4 posted on 08/01/2012 2:34:21 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Mikey_1962

49 seconds!


5 posted on 08/01/2012 2:35:31 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: NYer

No wonder Michael Phelps wasn’t as prepared as he should have been, he didn’t want to win too many golds.


6 posted on 08/01/2012 2:39:35 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
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To: Mikey_1962

ROFL!


7 posted on 08/01/2012 2:39:55 PM PDT by NYer (Without justice, what else is the State but a great band of robbers? - St. Augustine)
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To: NYer

If it were me, I would give the irs the medal and claim whatever value they set on it against future taxes. Let them put it in the bank and write checks on it.


8 posted on 08/01/2012 2:46:46 PM PDT by RobinOfKingston (The instinct toward liberalism is located in the part of the brain called the rectal lobe.)
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To: Mikey_1962
Somebody else made that happen.

The rest of us paid for those pools these athletes trained and competed in. We were responsible for filling up the pools with water. Regularly, we tested the water, added little chlorine tablets... the swimmers didn't do it. We did!

9 posted on 08/01/2012 2:52:24 PM PDT by C210N ("ask not what the candidate can do for you, ask what you can do for the candidate" (Breitbart, 2012))
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To: NYer
There are no special rules for Olympic medalists.

If this is the only money the kids earn, their income tax will be much lower than the highest marginal tax rates stated in the article.

It wouldn't kill us to have Olympics medal income exempted from income tax, or at least offset by training expenses bourne by the athlete or family.
10 posted on 08/01/2012 3:06:00 PM PDT by kenavi (Obama doesn't hate private equity. He wants to be it with our money.)
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To: NYer

Is MooseChelle still over there?

Where is she when white people do good?


11 posted on 08/01/2012 3:10:17 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: kenavi
If this is the only money the kids earn, their income tax will be much lower than the highest marginal tax rates stated in the article.

But that dampens a perfectly good rant.

(Though they shouldn't even have to declare it as income.)

12 posted on 08/01/2012 3:19:35 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Free people, when presented only with evil choices, create other choices.(EternalVigilance))
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To: NYer

This is such a lie. It is popularly going around. The ‘money’ one gets for the so called win goes straight to the USOC aqnd does not go to the winner. This kind of delusional crap has got to stop


13 posted on 08/01/2012 3:21:51 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: nascarnation
Is MooseChelle still over there?

Of course!

Michelle showed up in a $7,000 jacket to meet with Kate. Obama Donates to Himself (Rush Limbaugh weighs in)

14 posted on 08/01/2012 3:24:18 PM PDT by NYer (Without justice, what else is the State but a great band of robbers? - St. Augustine)
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To: NYer
Timothy Geithner will be standing there with his hand out for $8,986.

Will he be entering that in his Turbo Tax?

15 posted on 08/01/2012 3:27:45 PM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To the left the truth looks like Right-Wing extremism.)
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To: kenavi

“It wouldn’t kill us to have Olympics medal income exempted from income tax, or at least offset by training expenses bourne by the athlete or family.”

Republicans should announce the “Olympic Medal Exemption Law” which exempts olympic medal winners from taxes.

Let Harry Reid kill it in committee.


16 posted on 08/01/2012 3:34:00 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (ABO 2012)
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To: NYer

It was most likely a democrat who thought of taxing Olympic medals. I’m curious, how did they conclude that competing in the Olympics was a source of income and a medal qualifies as income? It probably happened under Clinton since he also signed the double taxation of income for social security. In their own little corrupt world a democrat can skew anything.p>


17 posted on 08/01/2012 3:39:45 PM PDT by drypowder
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To: kenavi
… or at least offset by training expenses bourne by the athlete or family.

It is expensive. My 9 year old granddaughter is only a level 5, her two outfits this year cost $450 – one for practice and one for competition. Her training is now running around $400 a month. Next year when she moves up to a higher level the cost will go up.

18 posted on 08/01/2012 3:41:09 PM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink)
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To: Mikey_1962

They probably swam in public pools.


19 posted on 08/01/2012 3:52:27 PM PDT by anoldafvet
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To: C210N
I would love to see an ad with a little girl at a lemonade stand. Then flash to Elizabeth Warren says: you built a business good for you but we built the roads! Girl's lower lip sticks out. The a tall thin black man in a white dress shirt seen from behind says: “ you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen.”

Girl begins to cry.

20 posted on 08/01/2012 3:59:33 PM PDT by Mikey_1962 (Obama: The Affirmative Action President.)
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