2013 US G.D. - Racecamp is finished! Nick McMillen (GumballCGT) is our champion!

Bit of a kick in the guts. here is a free flight over to the UK oh and by the way you have to pay for half of it

 

Dang, I thought about plugging the 23K in there to see how it would change, NYC trip -700$ for me.

 

But if we'd won $23,000 in cash gambling on the stock market the capital gain tax would be significantly less.
Starting to see why the American middle class wants to burn the rich yet?

http://www.accountingweb.com/article/can-you-afford-free-taxes-spoil-game-show-win/222376

 

It definitely is a large chunk of change, but we had plenty of warning that it would be like this. I'm not complaining at all; I'll pay $7k any day that I'm offered such an opportunity.

Just make sure that if you plan on going to Silverstone, you're prepared for the risk involved with not winning.

 

Oh yeah... It's just lame in general that people have to pay income tax on non-cash prizes.

 

23k is pretty out of hand, this whole thing is basically a glorified job interview at the end of the day. This is ultimately a very cheap way for teams to find very top drivers, at least compared to traditional methods of having everyone drive real cars from the start. Can you imagine if a race team arranged for you to do some on site testing to see if they wanted to hire you as a driver and then gave you a 1099 claiming the testing was a prize? This is like trying to make the american idiol contestants who got to the Televised rounds, pay taxes for all the TV production costs because them getting that far was a "prize".

I guess I'm looking at it from their point of view. Claiming silverstone as a prize for you guys makes it seem like it was not required in order for them to choose a driver. Would have been hard for them to do a good job choosing with out having you drive real cars on a track, and that is expensive no matter how you slice it. Of course it is also financially beneficial for them to claim silverstone as a prize awarded to all of you, rather than simply paying for it themselves. Not to mention all the benefits they get out of it with you guys promoting their products. Just rubs me the wrong way, if it continues like this in the future it will start to push out a lot of people who can't afford it. For a college student, a 23k 1099 could triple his yearly income. He's probably not going to participate.

Glad we didn't have to pay for silverstone, I feel for you guys Did they warn you it was going to be anywhere near that much?

 

Having worked in casinos for a while, I've looked over quite a number of contests where the winner can either take the item (usually a car) or the cash option.

Guess which is the overwhelming favorite.

I know it's in the rules although I don't recall anyone working with GTA bring up taxes during my time in Finals.

While I do have my gripes with how GT Academy is conducted, taxes is not one of them - they're just following what they are required to do by law. It's a contest so you'll get 1099'ed for the prize plus expenses paid (I'm fairly certain TV production isn't included, however). Besides, I'll bet this route is still cheaper than trying to make it on your own.

 

Ugh... Looks like I'm going to need to live poor for a while.

Ended up owing 3K federal and 600 state. Lame that they only let me deduct 2500 in student loan interest when I have enough 1098-E's to be over 10K. That alone would wipe it out.

I need a new job. :/

 

Glad they dont do it in Australia, being an Apprentice electrician and getting paid not much at all. That amount would hurt

 

Wow I didn't realise this happened for you guys.

I wonder if the US GT-A winners are getting taxed on their contracts with Nissan considering it's a prize and all.

 

I can't believe they 1099'ed you guys....That's outrageous.

I won't be getting taxed much, because well there isn't much to tax...

 

Not sure but something tells me that's addressed in the contract itself.

Note to any future GT Academy participants: save at the bare minimum $1K for taxes, $5K if you're expecting to reach Silverstone.

 

Unfortunately, I moved that number up. Those with low income will probably lose out on deductions/credits because of the added income and those that are better off will pay a higher tax rate.

 

Dont worry from what I have seen you will win it hands down.

 

You've got over a year to save $3,000 don't you doodle?

 

I'm just putting mine on a credit card lol. I'll pay it back eventually

 

IRS takes installment payments. Then if you don't have it cleared by next year you can also contribute your next return to settle the old debt.

They make it pretty easy to pay taxes, I'm not sure what all those SETTLE YOUR DEBT WITH THE IRS!!!! YEAH!!! Late night lawyer commercials are all about.

 

No kidding? I had no idea. Thanks for the info!!!!

I guess I'll visit an HR block this year instead of online freebies

 

Yep, my mother in law does a lot of substitute teaching which always borks her taxes. Here's the skinny: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Payment-Plans,-Installment-Agreements

If you have a low to no interest CC it may still make sense to go that road. I'm going to get about 2/3 at filing then pick up the rest on installment. My card doesn't even have a high enough limit

 

if a participant crashes the car? does he have to pay? or nissan itself does it?

 

Anyone figure out some way to lower the amount owed on something like this? I'm in the $4500 range for owing on taxes. Oregon has a lovely income tax that about doubles what I would normally owe.

 

Even tho you won you still got taxed like the rest of us?

 

Damn. That sucks.

 

Nick,

If you have receipts for anything related to racing, you can deduct those as employment related activites. For example, your G27 wheel was purchased in an attempt to further your career, so it's deductible if purchased in 2013.

Same goes for any track days you did, parts purchased for your car, etc. Won't help a ton but it might save you a few hundred bucks.

 

Well I had a Porsche 911 at the time and those parts were damn expensive haha. I'd make money if I could get reimbursed for all of that. Thanks for the tip Bill.

 

Sure thing, happy to help! We all need to work together to figure out how to not get raped

Anyway, if you can claim that parts purchased for your Porsche were done so that your Porsche would be more track-ready, which helped you prepare for a career in motor racing, then you can deduct the cost for those parts (if you have receipts for 2013 purchases).

 

Yeah @GumballCGT, Bill is on the right track. This was a job interview and you got the job. Everything you spent preparing can be deducted. However, it's tricky since to gain any benefit you need to have enough itemized deductions to exceed the standard deduction. This year it would be worth your money to seek the help of a CPA. There are a lot of clever ways to game the IRS that we don't know (none of us have experience with being rich enough to have big tax liabilities ).
I wouldn't expect yours to be so high though, are your parents claiming you as a dependant? It would save you a bundle on federal if they didn't. Or are you just getting burned by Oregon?

 

I'd ask a tax pro whether that's an allowed deduction since the contract was won via a contest.

If there's any employee expenses Nissan did not reimburse, those are likely deductible. Might have to read through this first.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p529.pdf

As Tim mentioned, even with expenses to claim, they're useless unless itemized deductions are greater than standard deduction, which is the case mainly with newer homeowners paying off a mortgage.

 

It was a tax pro that gave me the idea