Olympic Victories
When athletes win a competition, they get a medal, a bouquet – and an extra gift from the IRS in tax requests. U.S. athletes who win honors at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics get a check from the U.S. Olympic Committee: $37 ,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze.
High-profile athletes who earn more than $1 million a year have to pay taxes on every win they get.
However, the law changes in 2016, thus exempting most medals and prizes from federal taxes. This change partly happened because many supporters thought it was unfair to ask heroes who trained all their lives for that moment to pay taxes for what they earned. Not every athlete gets a break though.
