Burger King cook who received measly gift after never missing a day of work in 27 years buys first home after fundraising campaign

The Burger King cook who never missed a day of work for nearly 30 years and received a measly gift for his dedication has bought his first home with the more than $400K raised from the now-viral clip, saying it was a Christmas miracle.

Kevin Ford closed on his new Pahrump, Nevada, home on Dec. 13, paying $177,000 for the 846-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath house, sharing the news with his followers on social media, according to TMZ. “I wanted to show you something, something you made possible, you did for me, just a hardworking guy,” Ford said in a video posted to Instagram on Dec. 29. “Now I know it needs some work, gonna cut off the haters already, I know it’s not a mansion but it’s mine.”

Ford had celebrated his 27th anniversary with the fast-food franchise without missing a single day of work. The chain, however, gifted him a backpack with a movie ticket, a Starbucks cup and a mix of candy and chocolate.

We know people who are paying almost $10K/yr in property taxes for a 2,000 sq ft existing home worth around $200k here in Upstate NY.

There are worse things than cramped spaces.

Like your government picking your pocket to screw you silly.

We live in a very, very small, very, very inexpensive home.

You know what makes that so worthwhile: Having a property tax bill as low as we can get it.

A Burger King or any fast food employee should NEVER expect to earn a living doing the same starting job for 27 years.

If he was a Manager or franchise owner it’d be different but a fast food cook is a fast food cook. Any idiot could do it.

If you believe a burger flipper should be making $40k - $50k to start which is a minimum living wage then burgers would be $25 - $30 to pay for that type wage.

If someone wants a living wage then they need to get their act together bust ass to get ahead and work for it.

It is correct according to the IRS.

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/money-received-through-crowdfunding-may-be-taxable-taxpayers-should-understand-their-obligations-and-the-benefits-of-good-recordkeeping

It really doesn’t change the game for tax fraud at all. You have always been able to pay someone for services and treat it as a gift if you wanted to do so. But there are reasons it doesn’t make sense to do that.

If I have a business and hit a contractor to do a job for $10k it is in my best interest to report that as payment for services because it will reduce my business’ taxable income by $10k. Either I am paying the taxes or the contractor is paying the taxes. You could try to create a longer chain - someone gifted it to my business, my business gifted it to the contractor, etc. But getting that many entities to agree to it would be difficult to impossible. And once anyone doesn’t play along, it is in their best interest to report it as an expense on their taxes.

That relies on the fact that business don’t pay taxes on revenue, they pay taxes on profit.

With individuals, it is different. If I as an individual hire someone to paint my house for $10k, I don’t get to deduct that $10k from my income for tax purposes. So if I give them the money (via cash, check, GoFundMe, whatever) and say it is a gift, then the contractor can choose to not report it as revenue and not pay taxes on it.

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