Should The IRS Tax Gold Medals?
Do you think Olympic champions should be taxed on their medals and prize earnings?
Photos
According to the Huffington Post, a national pat on the back isn't the only thing awaiting our returning Olympic champions: medals and prize money are both subject to income tax bills that can reach as high as $8500 a win, depending on one's ranking.
A gold medal - valued by CNN at approximately $650 - could cost American athletes about $236 in taxes. A bronze metal, worth about $5, would only cost about $2 in taxes
The big costs, instead, come from cash prices: The U.S. Olympic Organizing Committee will award London champions $25,000 for a gold medal, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bringing home a bronze, Reuters reports.
At a 35 percent income tax rate, bronze medalists will owe the IRS a total of $3,500, silver medalists $5,250 and top finishers $8,750.
Readers: do you think Olympians should be taxed on their medals and prize money? Or should these national champions get a little break for their effort?
Jane D
3:12 pm on Thursday, August 9, 2012
Leave it to Uncle Sam to want his piece. Where is the government when all these athletes and families spend thousand and thousands on their training. Money they have previously been taxed on. Shameful Other countries actually pay for their athletes to training.