Topic: Rubio bill eliminates federal tax on Olympic medals

[Pandora]

Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a bill Wednesday to eliminate the federal government’s tax on Olympic medals, saying the levy amounted to yet another way the government tries to punish those who succeed.

Athletes who win a gold medal also earn a $25,000 honorarium — and with it an $8,986 tax bill to the IRS, according to Americans for Tax Reform, which crunched the numbers. That covers both the honorarium and the tax on the value of the gold in the medal itself.

The silver medal tax comes to $5,385, and the bronze medal tax is $3,502 — including $2 for the value of the bronze medal itself, and the $10,000 honorarium.

... All told, U.S. athletes have 64 medals — 27 golds, 18 silvers and 19 bronzes — which comes to a tax bill of nearly $350,000.

Swimmer Ryan Lochte, the most-decorated American athlete so far, faces a tax bill of $23,357 for his two golds and a silver.

I want to know whose bright idea it was to tax these things in the first place, so we know whose head to detach.

Whores.

[IronDioPriest]

Good for Rubio. The idea that winning an Olympic medal imposes a tax burden is so outside the boundary of common sense that it seems surreal that it was ever contemplated let alone enacted.

[Libertas]

Proves Reagan right again..."if it moves, tax it"!  Dem's are hooked on the strongest drug there is - OPM!

[Predator Don]

I hadn't heard of this....and good for Rubio. Have we figured out who actually passed this legislation?

[AmericanPatriot]

In the scope of things, this was the biggest thing he can do?
Hell, let's make him Veep

[charlesoakwood]

Let's not pluck our best from the house of senate
and stick them in the VIP spot.

[LadyVirginia]

Proves Reagan right again..."if it moves, tax it"!  Dem's are hooked on the strongest drug there is - OPM!

Basically, everything is income and you have to look for an exception because our money isn't really ours.

[Libertas]

Proves Reagan right again..."if it moves, tax it"!  Dem's are hooked on the strongest drug there is - OPM!

Basically, everything is income and you have to look for an exception because our money isn't really ours.

That is the default position of our enemies, unless that changes we are toast.

[Pandora]

I hadn't heard of this....and good for Rubio. Have we figured out who actually passed this legislation?

Good luck trying to find that out.  In all the pieces written about this issue, nobody included it.

[IronDioPriest]

I hadn't heard of this....and good for Rubio. Have we figured out who actually passed this legislation?

Good luck trying to find that out.  In all the pieces written about this issue, nobody included it.

My guess is that it isn't a specific penalty written into the tax code for Olympic medals, but rather a tax based on the prize money and the valuation of the precious metal, and a lack of foresight to create an exemption. I would guess that Olympic medal winners have been subject to taxes all along, and it just hasn't been in the forefront of discussion. I may be dead wrong.

But I think what Rubio is seeking here would be a special carve-out tax exemption for Olympic athletes who win medals rather than undoing some special penalty placed on Olympic champions.

I don't generally approve of government deciding who gets to benefit from its benevolence regarding tax exemption. But under the system we currently have, Olympic athletes paying exorbitant taxes in the event of winning Olympic medals screams for an exemption.