Top US athletes winning gold at Sochi may need to pay 10,000 dollars as taxes

Any US athlete who wins gold at the 2014 Winter Olympics underway in Sochi, Russia may reportedly need to pay 10, 000 dollars as US taxes as the money is considered earned income abroad and subject to IRS taxation.

The US Olympic Commission awards cash prizes to Olympians who win a medal- 25,000 dollars for a gold, 15,000 dollars for a silver and 10,000 dollars for a bronze, although the money is considered earned income abroad and subject to IRS taxation

According to Fox News, the group Americans for Tax Reform, which has calculated the federal tax that medal winners could face, mentioned that the United States is one of only a handful of developed countries that taxes such income, which means other Olympic competitors will likely not have to pay such taxes.

The group slammed this policy of the government as 'illogical' and 'one of the most backward', and the report mentioned that the marginal-income tax bracket into which an Olympian falls would decide how much he or she must pay as the amounts do not take into account income taxes owed in most states.

All Olympians in the 39.6 percent top tax bracket also could pay 9,900 dollars for a gold medal, 5,940 dollars for a silver and 3,960 dollars for a bronze medal, while an Olympian in the 28 percent bracket, about the middle range, could pay as much as 7,000 dollars for a gold, 4,200 dollars for a silver and 2,800 dollars for a bronze medal.

Those in the lowest - the 10 percent bracket -could pay 2,500 dollars for a gold, 1,500 dollars for a silver and 1,000 dollars for a bronze medal, the report added.