Obama Finds a Tax He Doesn't Like

Obama Finds a Tax He Doesn't Like

President Barack Obama has seen a tax he does not like. The President believes Olympic athletes should not be taxed for succeeding at the Games.

“The president believes we should support efforts to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to honor and support our Olympic athletes who have volunteered to represent our nation at the Olympic Games,” the White House told Yahoo. “We still support this effort.”

Currently, some Olympic athletes could be taxed as much as 39.6% for succeeding at the highest level:

The USOC awards prizes to U.S. Olympic medal winners: $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze. Relative to each athlete’s income tax bracket, some top earners such as Shaun White could end up paying over a third (39.6 percent) of their winnings to the IRS.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) introduced a bill to remedy the medals tax, as have Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX), Walter Jones (R-NC) and Pete Sessions (R-TX). Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a similar bill in 2012 that stalled.

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