"That'll be $80, swimming-in-sewage tax."
You didn’t win that!
No pity here. It’s a business. Use Schedule C ... they took 4 years training - no reason they can’t spread the winnings across the four years earnings (if much).
Why is it unfair? I win Purchase orders all the time and get taxed for it.
All prizes are taxable, why should Olympic medals be any different?
Good grief! What’s Phelps gonna owe?
What’s the difference get money form winning the gold or playoff money for B-ball of super bowl. The whole tax code sucks. Maybe if someone is poor then some one cans step up or change the law, but that’s life. Welcome home champs, sign this form.
———— Screaming for help in Taxifornia
Play stupid games, get stupid prizes. :-)
They are the 0.0001 of this planet’s carbon units. If they play their cards right they can cash in on ads and sponsorships. I get the libertarian taxation angle, but it’s tough to feel sorry for them.
Getting taxed on prize money is normal. Our Federal and State tax forms have lines for that.
I don’t know about taxes on the values of Olympic medals, which I’m sure that the athletes do not intend to sell-—unless forced to by the taxman. PHOOEY!!!!
The most ridiculous thing ever. I wonder which congress passed that dumb law. I would not fall over to find out it was boner.
The absolutely last thing we want to do is create special classes of sympathetic people who don’t have to pay tax. First it will be Olympians. Then it will be teachers or fire fighters. Then it will be other government employees or social workers. Everyone should pay tax. It should be a low rate and it should be fair, but everyone should pay it.
So what is the value of an Olympic medal, in monetary terms? In terms of materials it’s nearly worthless - base metals with plating. You can’t buy one new, as far as I know. Cost to manufacture? I don’t know, but probably can’t be more than a few hundred bucks, even if made in the first world by a skilled metal worker.
If the Greedy Government wants Half then change the Government
I can see taxing the cash paid to the athletes for winning medals, but I disagree with taxing them on the intrinsic value of the medal itself.
Tax the prize money as income. Don’t tax the medals. BTW the price of bronze in the bronzn medal $2. Silver medal worth about $300. Gold medal, gold plated, the rest silver, about $450. So the IRS coming after the athletes for the value of the medals is silly
Other professional athletes pay taxes on their winnings. Why shouldn’t Olympians?
Does all that money and valuable medals make them professional athletes? Jim Thorpe got busted for less.
An Olympic Medal pays for itself as booty-bait, even without endorsements.