So you train your entire life, make it to the Olympics and win a gold medal. What an amazing accomplishment! Congrats! 

Now Uncle Sam wants a piece of it, too, in the form of a big fat tax.  Yes, for placing first you win the Gold and $25,000!  Cool, but then you give up $8750 to the gov at a 35% income tax rate.  Should you have to?  Should you be exempt as an American athlete representing the United States in world competition?  Should the elite athletes serving our country have to pay tax on their winnings?

My first thought goes to the military.  These men and women serve our country every day, and they have to pay taxes.  Why should these athletes be exempt?  Maybe because it only happens every 4 years...or every two years including the Winter Olympics.  A legislator in Florida has introduced a bill to make Olympic medalists exempt from taxes on their competition earnings...of course any commercial endorsement money will not be included in this bill.  Rightly so.

Check out an article about it in the Washington Post. 

Hope you have a Gold Medal kinda day today, and thanks for listening!  Know You're Loved  -- Jg