Should Olympic athletes pay taxes on their success in Sochi?

[Earth_First]

Interesting discussion I was having last night that I'm curious to know what others think about it...

In addition to the medals, athletes are also given a monetary award that is prorated to their achievement. A bronze medal is awarded $10,000 silver $15,000 and gold $25,000.

What say you...

[unblock]

1. hardly! it should go straight to their accounts in the caymans! why punish success!

[seveneyes]

2. Reward and effort

Unless these athletes are getting large six figures, I'd say they have earned whatever pittance they receive and should keep it.

[Earth_First]

4. Which is a point I brought up last night...

Several of these athletes have large corporate sponsorships that while may not be in the six-figure range, save a handful, many do have qualifying income from corporate sponsorship.

[PoliticAverse]

3. What's one more special interest exemption in the tax code?... n/t

[justhanginon]

5. Unless they are part of the privileged 1% or

a corporation they should pay taxes just like the rest of us common folk do. If they don't want to pay taxes they need to purchase their congress people and get laws passed exempting them just like the privileged ones do. I guess my answer would be a definite yes!

[dipsydoodle]

6. As a general rule are winnings taxed in the USA

They are not taxable in rhe UK

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Winnings from games of chance aren't taxable here in the UK, but this is payment for action

I think it would be taxed in the UK. We even have a tendency to tax win bonuses earned in competitions in the UK by overseas athletes - http://www.tax.org.uk/Resources/CIOT/Documents/2012/08/Olympic_Tax.pdf - they passed special laws saying this didn't apply to the 2012 Olympics/Paralympics.

[A Little Weird]

7. Why shouldn't they?

There is generally a tax for prize money regardless of the source. I'm pretty sure Americans who win the Nobel prize, for example, are taxed.

Edited to add: I don't necessarily agree with this tax, I just don't see why there would be a specific exemption for Olympians.

[Renew Deal]

8. No

At least not for direct participation (medals, stipend, etc)

[Javaman]

9. no. in fact, absolutely no. nt

[bigwillq]

10. No (nt)

[TBF]

11. Why should anyone pay taxes?

Oh, wait I'm on a democratic website. I forgot for a second ...

[Bluenorthwest]

12. Chump change to these millionaires.

I just saw one of them doing a 'I love to take weekends at the Beverly Hills Hilton' commercial, heard another interviewed about 'taking two weeks to travel around Italy before the Games with my best friend and my physical therapist'. Like a rock star.
I'm sure their staff of accountants will know what to do with an extra few grand in a million dollar month.

[Lizzie Poppet]

18. Very few Olympic athletes are wealthy.

Especially in the winter Olympics, where most of the sports except ice hockey and alpine skiing are obscure. The top-ranked skiiers and NHL players make a lot of money. Most of the rest either get by on rather modest stipends from their country's sports organizations or actually have regular jobs and participate as true amateurs. These aren't NBA superstars or football (soccer, that is) multimillionaires. Your examples are outliers.

[jberryhill]

14. What makes their jobs any different?

People do amazing stuff every day to earn money, and that income is taxed.

[TBF]

20. I see several "no" votes

without explanation.

So, should we tax athletes? Should we tax singers? If we like someone do we exempt them from paying as well? There are police who do heroic things on a daily basis - do we tax them? (of course there are bad cops too - what do we do w/them?)

This is ridiculous.

[FourScore]

15. No. n/t

[Sgent]

16. Most probably won't be

if they have a decent accountant.

Almost all the amateur athletes (not including professionals like NHL players) spend their own money to a large extent to compete. The money spent is deductible from the award before arriving at taxable income.

All athletes have the option of donating the money to a charity if they want with no tax implications.

Other than that, I don't see why this type of income should be different than any other.

[TransitJohn]

17. Yes, it's income. Pretty simple.

eom

[JaneyVee]

19. No.