Oprah Winfrey‘s latest giveaway to the 300 people in her audience — a VW Beetle, a $1,000 Nordstrom gift certificate, an iPad and a $2,000 piece of jewelry — has me fascinated.
Like what are the tax consequences of the giveaway.
All Oprah’s people say is that the show “makes a good faith estimate of the tax due for each audience member and pays this on their behalf.”
I wondered if any audience member would be on the hook for any taxes so I asked Alan J. Strauss, a New York City tax lawyer and certified public accountant who is an expert on IRS rulings, for help.
First off, it’s clear that Oprah does not consider the cars and the rest of the giveaway to be actual gifts from her to the audience. In other words, the money for this stuff isn’t coming out of her pocket.
If these were straight gifts, says Strauss, the audience wouldn’t owe tax on any of the goods. And Oprah might have to fork over tax for any amount over $13,000 per person — the IRS’s annual limit for gifts.
So, it will probably come as no surprise that this was a promotion, taxable event — a business transaction — between Oprah’s show and the companies that provided the loot.
That’s a much more complicated situation. For one thing, there are 300 recipients, who each pay taxes at different rates.
And the audience members won’t really know what the gifts are worth until the “fair market value” — the IRS’s term - is determined.
http://nypost.com/2010/11/26/no-thanks-oprah-you-can-keep-the-new-car/