Rubio fights Olympic taxes

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Published: 8/02/2012 8:38 am

Updated: 8/02/2012 8:41 am

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans who win gold, silver or bronze at the Olympics gets a cash award from the U.S. Olympic Committee of tens of thousands of dollars.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida doesn't want them paying taxes on the honorariums.

The Republican lawmaker introduced a bill Wednesday that would exempt medal winners from the taxes, calling the penalty ridiculous. The USOC says a gold medalist gets $25,000, a silver medalist $15,000 and a bronze winner $10,000.

What about NBA stars on the basketball team like the Miami Heat's LeBron James? Rubio's office says that the Olympics are unique, with U.S. athletes volunteering to represent the country, and that success should be celebrated, not taxed.

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osprey1 - 8/3/2012 2:50 PM

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These atheletes need to tell the Obama administration to collect any tax money from the people who helped not the people who accomplished something on there own, after all even Obama said they didn't do it, they all had help so collect from the help.

Papakilo - 8/2/2012 6:21 PM

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Sen. Rubio is right to prohibit taxing Olypians. Olympics are unique, with U.S. athletes volunteering to represent the country, and that success should be celebrated, not taxed. It should not be a matter of being able to write off the tax or not. Our voulnteers represent Our Country and should not be penalized by a tax.

whosaysnocan - 8/2/2012 4:40 PM

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Rubio is good. In this election year and the his name apparently being bantered around for VP, bringing this up is brilliant! These athletes usually do not have much of a taxable income while they are training. They will be able to "write-off" most of what is the earnings from the metal(s) they win. Then when they make the income that many of them can anticipate, they will pay taxes on those earnings, minus the write offs of course. Also as "tlynn" posted, "are we opening the door for all previous winners to get refunds?" It is silly, yet again it is not a surprise that someone came up with this. Usually a "handler" of those like Rubio.