The Senate approved a bill Thursday that would eliminate the “victory tax” that has previously been charged to Olympians for winning medals.
The U.S. Olympic Committee gives out prize money to medal winners ($25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze), but that money had previously been considered “income” and taxed as such.
The vote occurred the same day as President Barack Obama welcomed the entire Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House to recognize their accomplishments in Rio. Obama is expected to sign the bill in the near future, and it will be effective this year.
Notably, the tax will still apply to athletes who earn more than $1 million per year, which includes Michael Phelps. According to the Associated Press, Phelps’ tax bill for his five-gold, one-silver-medal performance in Rio could reach upwards of $55,000.
Click here to read the full report from the Associated Press (via ABC News).
Finally!
Supported this from day one. Congress got this right!
Wow!!!! Congress DID SOMETHING! And…it was a GOOD thing. Wow.
Shocking for sure
Yay!!!
B.j. Wolf no more taxes!
ikr? wtf is tht, anyway
YESSS. Finally something positive and showing real support.
Let’s make Donald pay those taxes!
Yes because seizing arbitrary amounts of people’s property is good…?
Anything retroactive? ?
I’ll see what I can do, doesn’t look good though, ha ha
Erik Lesnewsky Ask about interest for me!!
Probably as likely as them voting to give me a raise… I’ll try for both
Erik Lesnewsky I’ll vote for you!!!
Danielle
I better start training for 2020 then????. Seriously though that’s the right thing to do.
Wooooo Hooooo!!! 🙂 Great news!
Great, now end the death/estate tax, make the income tax a low, flat rate… 🙂
Thank you!!
Congratulations! Well deserved
About time!
Phelps can afford it!!!!
Good job Congress.
About time !!!
Only one?
That’s stupid. Then If won the lotery why would I have to pay taxes?
Hillary will die with this
About time!!
One of the fundamental principles of America is equality under the law. It is even more important that a taxing authority treat all Americans equally. But, apparently, some of you believe that some income is more equal than other income. You do realize that Animal Farm is a cautionary tale not a guidebook?
And, if we are going to make exceptions from income, the let’s exempt the income that our solders, sailors, airmen and Marines earn from taxation before we exempt the income from a few athletes, who are really just entertainers.