Win Olympic Gold, Pay
The IRS
The shocking news coming out of the 2012 Summer Olympics
being staged in London is that the U.S. is virtually the only developed nation
that taxes "worldwide" income earned overseas by its taxpayers resulting in the
fact that our Olympic athletes will have to pay taxes on their medals and
prizes.
It gets even worse when we are told that not only do our
Olympic athletes have to pay these taxes chances are their competitors will face
no such taxation putting our athletes as a competitive disadvantage that has
nothing to do with sports.
While 529 hardworking athletes proudly represent the United
States in the 2012 Olympics, any medals and money they earn wearing red, white
and blue will be taxed by the IRS.
American medalist face a top income tax rate of 35 percent
and under the U.S. tax law they must add the value of their Olympic medals and
prizes to their taxable income.
Olympic glory for winners of golf medal include a $236 medal
tax, a prize tax of $8,750 for a total tax of $8,986. Silver champions will pay
a $135 medal tax, a prize tax of $5,250 and the total tax burden of $5,385. It
gets a little cheaper for Bronze winners who get clipped for a $2 medal tax, a
$3,500 prize tax for a total of $3,502.
Standing on the podium in London is now a financial slap in
the face for our Olympic champions as everyone's favorite bureaucrats, the IRS,
waits to give them their bill.......interesting to note that at the time of this
writing America's young champion swimmer Missy Franklin already owed $14,000 in
taxes.
Changes must come for our Olympic champions and an exception
must be made. Our tax code is a burdensome mess that too often punishes success
..... the tax imposed on our Olympic medal winners is a classic example of this
madness.
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