# Oprah's "Gift" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584 "2004-09-22T23:45:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584/21 "2004-09-23T16:20:14Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I don’t know what the _minimum_ tax would be, but for a single parent (filing as a head of household) on welfare I’m sure it would be a lot less that seven grand. Which would make their windfall even greater than 21k, thus they’d be more likely to get cut off from the help they’d been getting. Which would probably mean they’d just have to decline to begin with, which sucks IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584/22 "2004-09-23T16:32:02Z")
> [@](#): > > If Oprah (the woman, not the show) coughed up the (let’s assume) $7,000 for all 267 audience members, that would come to $1,869,000. And instead of giving everyone $28,000, she’d be giving them all $35,000. Their taxes would therefore be correspondingly higher. Obviously Oprah could continue to hand out money until nobody but her had to pay a cent but I think that’s asking a little much. > [@](#): > > Doesn’t she have that in pocket change? Heck, that would be $1.8 million less that she would have to pay taxes on, too. I’ll assume you’re just making a joke here. But considering some of the posts that have been made, I should probably point out that Oprah’s taxes are based on her income not on how much she spends. If she gives away $1,869,000 she’d still owe the same amount of taxes\*. \*In theory anyway. In reality, Oprah, as an individual, probably had nothing to do financially with this transaction. Her corporation probably would write off all these expenses as a business promotion. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584/23 "2004-09-23T16:51:00Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > And instead of giving everyone $28,000, she’d be giving them all $35,000. Their taxes would therefore be correspondingly higher. No. Wrong. Originally I thought the same, too. Look at the link that I posted above. Hint: it’s the url that starts with “[http://www.irs.gov](http://www.irs.gov)”. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584/24 "2004-09-23T17:51:15Z")
I am not a tax lawyer either, but I am a lawyer, and I recall back in law school there was a case about a football player (Paul Hornung, I think) who won a car as an MVP award type prize and had to include its full new car value on his income taxes. I haven’t read the case in years, but I think that as a result of the case the prize giver had to offer the prize recipient the choice of the prize itself or the cash equivalent. I confess though that don’t know if that is currently the law or if my recollection is hazy. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584/25 "2004-09-23T18:05:01Z")
GM paid for it all. Taxes and everything. ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584/26 "2004-09-23T18:34:59Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > I’ll assume you’re just making a joke here. You assume correctly, as $1.8 million is a little much to carry around. It would be a tad uncomfortable. 🙂 Besides, I was only speaking hypothetically. I know the _show_ gave the cars away, but I was imagining Oprah paying for the taxes out of her personal account. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584/27 "2004-09-23T18:53:18Z")
My understanding is the cars were deemed to be prizes not gifts. There are limits on the amount you can gift to another person (This goes to unified credits etc. which gets a little complicated. I don’t do Oprah’s estate planning but I would imagine that her tax lawyer told her and/or her corporation to treat the cars as prizes and not as a gift). I do believe the limit is $11,000 per person. A corporation has a much smaller gift limit. Absent the welfare issue mentioned above, I think it would make sense to sell the car and take the tidy net profit of 20k+ ---
**Author:** ![little\_bit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@little\_bit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/little_bit)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584/28 "2004-09-23T18:58:33Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > GM paid for it all. Taxes and everything. > [@Original Article](#): > > Pontiac agreed to pay most of the local charges, including state sales tax and licensing fees. Pontiac never agreed to pay anyone’s income tax. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584/29 "2004-09-23T19:02:39Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > GM paid for it all. Taxes and everything. Pontiac paid the sales taxes. The recipients must pay the income and property taxes, as well as the taxes that are called “fees”, such as license tags. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2004, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584/30 "2004-09-23T19:02:46Z")
By the way, I heard that it cost Pontiac $7 million. I think it was a good investment, as they’ve certainly gotten enough press out of this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprahs-gift/265584.md?page=1)