Congress Approves Elimination of Olympic “Victory Tax”

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).

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John J. Coan

7 years ago

Finally!

Brent Lichty

7 years ago

Supported this from day one. Congress got this right!

Bill Thompson

7 years ago

Wow!!!! Congress DID SOMETHING! And…it was a GOOD thing. Wow.

Thomas Inwood

7 years ago

Reply to Bill Thompson

Shocking for sure

Ana Maria

7 years ago

Yay!!!

Crystal Dawn Wolf

7 years ago

B.j. Wolf no more taxes!

Lance Robinson

7 years ago

ikr? wtf is tht, anyway

Merell Lange

7 years ago

YESSS. Finally something positive and showing real support.

Dave Berkoff

7 years ago

Let’s make Donald pay those taxes!

Tyler Yates

7 years ago

Reply to Dave Berkoff

Yes because seizing arbitrary amounts of people’s property is good…?

B.J. Bedford Miller

7 years ago

Anything retroactive? ?

Erik Lesnewsky

7 years ago

Reply to B.J. Bedford Miller

I’ll see what I can do, doesn’t look good though, ha ha

B.J. Bedford Miller

7 years ago

Reply to B.J. Bedford Miller

Erik Lesnewsky Ask about interest for me!!

Erik Lesnewsky

7 years ago

Reply to B.J. Bedford Miller

Probably as likely as them voting to give me a raise… I’ll try for both

B.J. Bedford Miller

7 years ago

Reply to B.J. Bedford Miller

Erik Lesnewsky I’ll vote for you!!!

Debi Olivier

7 years ago

Danielle

Kristie Wisniewski

7 years ago

I better start training for 2020 then????. Seriously though that’s the right thing to do.

Linda Trousdale Griswold

7 years ago

Wooooo Hooooo!!! 🙂 Great news!

Tyler Yates

7 years ago

Great, now end the death/estate tax, make the income tax a low, flat rate… 🙂

Karen Natal

7 years ago

Thank you!!

Win Le

7 years ago

Congratulations! Well deserved

Tina Trees

7 years ago

About time!

Eric Nordlund

7 years ago

Phelps can afford it!!!!

Michele Deleske

7 years ago

Good job Congress.

Thomas Inwood

7 years ago

About time !!!

Tấấn Lộc

7 years ago

Only one?

Edwin Bonilla

7 years ago

That’s stupid. Then If won the lotery why would I have to pay taxes?

Edwin Bonilla

7 years ago

Hillary will die with this

Chris Schneider

7 years ago

About time!!

Leander

7 years ago

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.