Should Olympians be Taxed?
By Wilson
@wilsonburrell (207)
United States
August 5, 2012 11:05am CST
Last week it was announced that the Olympians would be taxed if they won medals. The issue here is why should they be taxed if they should. I don't think they should. What did the government in America have to do with Olympics in Britain? What good will it do to give the government all that money. These are the same people who raised their salary two years in a row instead of raising disability wages. What business does the American government have charging taxes to people who have trained all their lives to win for the country? After paying trainers and coaches it basically leaves the winners with little to no profit. Honestly if I was an Olympian I'd purposely lose.
5 people like this
9 responses
@ram_cv (16513)
• India
6 Aug 12
Wow!! Was this a bill in US Senate? :) Interestingly, Olympics only gives medals right and no cash rewards as far as I know. So not sure what the tax will be. The gold medal is 95% silver and 4% coating of gold which I think will cost hardly a few dollars. Silver will be lesser and Bronze will hardly be worth anything. So not sure what they will tax. Of course, there will be grants, prize monies given by sponsors etc. which I think anyhow would be in the purview of the state taxes.
So not sure what this about?
Cheers!
Ram
@sender621 (14893)
• United States
6 Aug 12
I think that it is unfair to tax Olmpans for winning medalsa. these athletes work and train hard for their sport for so much of their life. It should be such a glory to win a medal for these efforts. How discouraging would it be to these athletes to have these medal dreams crushed by taxation just because they were good enough in theie sport to win.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
6 Aug 12
Do the other nations tax their Olympian winners? I doubt it. The athletes who win the medals are supposed to be amateurs and not professionals. Besides as you said, they did work and pay trainers out of their own pockets. If one wanted to be really fair, they should also deduct the training expenses, etc. just as students deduct educational expenses. This is just the government trying to make money out of the hard work of others.
@lampar (7584)
• United States
5 Aug 12
If an Olympian have work contract and receive earn income, then he/she probably will have to pay tax like the rest of the work force, as long as the employer who hire him to compete and pay him salary, then he will be treated as an employee to the company, their pay cheque will be reported to the IRS or tax revenue department for tax purposes. It doesn't matter he/she is an Olympian or Hercules or Solomon, government want part of the earned income every decent human being make, it won't bother them a bit whether you work your bu*t out for the gold medal or wear yourself out during the training session. 
mes
I agree with you
@lelin1123 (15595)
• Puerto Rico
5 Aug 12
I heard about this and was shocked. After all they did to get to the Olympics and then to win a medal and have to pay taxes is horrible. The government is corrupted in my opinion and its just not right to be taxed. After all the money that the parents had to spend for their kids then taxes have to be paid for winning a medal. What is the incentive to win. I feel so sorry for Michael Phelps he owes the government alot of money in taxes.
@anklesmash (1412)
•
5 Aug 12
I think Olympic medalists should be celebrated by the government.Olympians unlike many other sport stars dont have the same level of fame and ability to earn as other sports people do.Most of their time is spent alone training very hard in relative obscurity they deserve their talent to be rewarded once every four years.Though olympians dont usually compete in order to make lots of money it is more out of a love for the sport and an ambition to be the best in the world at that particular sport and winning an olympic medal would still be desirable due to the prestige even without any financial renumeration.
@nnanduri (23)
•
5 Aug 12
Yes your are right.The government says that it will support the sports people.But it will not take 1 cent from there pockets.But now trying to get back from them.Then what is the need to keep prize money.They have struggled for years and years to make their country proud.
