# \[i\]That\[/i\] was the twist!  (Joe Millionaire)(spoilers!)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-that-i-was-the-twist-joe-millionaire-spoilers/155834>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 18, 2003, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-that-i-was-the-twist-joe-millionaire-spoilers/155834 "2003-02-18T07:21:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![TaxGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@TaxGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaxGuy)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-that-i-was-the-twist-joe-millionaire-spoilers/155834/61 "2003-02-20T23:04:23Z")

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Slight nitpick-hijack from your friendly local tax attorney. The check for $1,000,000 may have been a gift, in which case it would be excluded from Evan and Zora’s gross income under section 103 of the Code.

However, the interesting (well, to me) tax issue here is that the tax law normally won’t allow something to be treated as a gift if the donor and donee are in a relationship such as employer/employee, corporation/shareholder, etc.

So, the question now becomes: were Evan and Zora performing services for the network by appearing on the show, and if so is the check compensation for those services? If not, then they don’t have to pay US income tax on the proceeds (but France may assert taxing jurisdiction in some way).

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**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-that-i-was-the-twist-joe-millionaire-spoilers/155834/62 "2003-02-24T21:44:49Z")

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**TaxGuy:**

Of course, it would have to be the Fox Network, or the company responsible for producing Joe Millionaire, that wrote the check, so – is something allowed to be treated as a gift if the donor is an artificial person such as a corporation?

And if so, how does Fox/the Joe Millionaire production company calculate its gift tax?

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**Author:** ![psychotropic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/57b2e6/32.png) [@psychotropic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychotropic)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-that-i-was-the-twist-joe-millionaire-spoilers/155834/63 "2003-03-01T02:10:20Z")

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Glad to know Zora won. Here we’re down to the last three. Finally a brunette triumphs. Hip hip hooray! 🙂

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