If I weren’t allowed to sell or transfer the prize, that would severely narrow the pool of prizes that I would be willing to accept. I have never owned and will never own a camper / boat / jetski / motorcycle / snowmobile / quadrunner / airplane. I have no desire to travel anywhere that would be a prize in a contest. I have plenty of rice-a-roni already, thank you very much.
If music/theater tickets were something generic like, “pick any show from the entire season at this theater”, then I would pick a show that I’d like to see. Otherwise, if the tickets were for a specific show, I would probably pass.
It would be possible to pay me enough to take a cruise, but it would have to be in the 6-digits… and probably not on the lower end of the 6-digits range.
I am generally open to the idea of winning money, but I’m not doing a commercial for you. I don’t accept BitCoin or Rubles or whatever they’re using as money in Venezuela right now.
If you even think about offering me a copy of the home game, I am going to show you to the door. I might call you something other than your name while I do it.
I might try a cruise again, though I must admit the first one pretty much sucked.
My Wife and I joined a group for a friends 50th birthday. Fun group though we only knew a few people. Turned out to also be spring break for a lot of kids. The ship was packed with college kids. Uh, OK. Been there done that. Don’t fault them for having fun. More bad timing on our fault.
The bars where often 5 people deep though, and the ship ran out of a couple of different types of beer, and frankly, the food sucked. That’s what really surprised me. I thought the food would be good. I had one good meal the entire trip.
Other shit happened that was out of the control of the cruise line, so I won’t call them on that.
This is a fun thread. I happened to be watching reruns of “Concentration” (hosted by Alex Trebek) yesterday, and you wouldn’t believe how cheesy some of the prizes were. At one point a contestant won a “salad set” and even Alex joked that that consisted of a knife and a fork.
Generally speaking I’ll try almost anything once, but, aside from things that would directly cost me (UK, so no worries about the tax issue) I think I’d pass on a resort or cruise trip lasting longer than about 3 days. I’m pretty sure I’d hate it, but if booze was included, 3 days would be tolerable.
My brother once won a family annual pass to the local zoo in a competition; it was the top prize, worth a few £100, so pretty good for a kids’ prize. Only problem was, my Dad worked there. Not only that, at the time, we literally spent every Saturday there (Mum also worked Saturdays, parents couldn’t find a babysitter, and Dad’s immediate boss was OK with it so long as we pretended it was a one-off if one of the big bosses came over, which they never did). The bro was a tad miffed.
Luckily, the kid who won the second prize- a bike - agreed to swap, and the organisers agreed to let 'em.
You are under no obligation to accept a prize. If you don’t accept a prize, you don’t have to pay taxes on it. In fact, reports from contestants on game shows say that after the show, the producers give them a list of prizes they’ve won and tell them to check off which ones they want or don’t want.
However, you can’t do something like say “give it to relative” or “give it to the Red Cross.” If you get to direct where the prize goes, then it’s treated as if you received the prize and gave it away yourself, so you have to pay taxes on it.
The State of California has a 7% withholding tax on prizes over $1500 that applies to NON-RESIDENTS of California only. This is not the final amount due. The final amount due when you file your annual California tax return could be more or less than this. This amount is only a sort of security deposit to cover state taxes. Federal taxes are separate.
I don’t know that you have to pay “immediately.” I would guess that most show producers would give you a reasonable amount of time to go get the money. The producer could also pay the tax for you, but the amount the producer paid would also be subject to tax. I am pretty sure you could use a check or money order or wire the money to the producer in addition to cash.
I’m a California resident. I didn’t win a car, but rather a trip, on Jeopardy, and I did not have to pay taxes on it until I filed my normal return. Certainly not before I took the trip.
I heard bob barker say years ago that 90 percent of the cars were won on tpir was exchanged for a cash equilivent
Every year HGTV has a contest for a house of some type and the winners end up selling them because no one can afford to keep them
Those HGTV houses always seem to end up in high-tax areas, and the ones I’ve looked up appear to be pretty high maintenance also. They only had one that even remotely interested me, but it was located in a fairly remote area (hah! I crack me up) and unless I was retired with a really big pension, I couldn’t have lived there anyway.
I wouldn’t mind a vacation on one of those giant cruise ships, if I could take behind-the-scenes tours (e.g., of the bridge, the engine room, the kitchens and the food storage). That would appeal to the nerd in me.
Unfortunately, the behind-the-scenes tours on cruise ships are pretty much limited to the galley, the laundry, and the bridge. No way they’ll let anyone see the cool stuff like the engine room or the water-making system or waste treatment. I did get backstage tours on 2 different ships and the singers and dancers showed how little space they had to change costumes. If you were modest, you wouldn’t last there…
A few years back, a local school had a raffle where one of the prizes was an above-ground pool kit. I told my wife that I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather avoid. They look tacky as hell, are a PITA to put up, cost a fortune to fill, and are a pain to maintain…so I’ll stick with that.
On a number of game shows in the mid-1970s, one of the prizes usually included in a “jackpot” was a 52-day Mediterranean cruise priced at $11,000 (and that’s in 1975 dollars). What they forgot to mention was:
(a) You had to be one of the people taking the cruise;
(b) You had to take it within a year, and there were only two sailings per year;
(c) You had to figure out how to get 52 consecutive days off of your job;
(d) You had to pay income tax as if it was $11,000 cash, even if tickets for the same cruise could be bought for much less.
As for answering the original question as intended, and assuming there were no tax implications involved, I would say, tickets to pretty much any concert - I have never followed any band closely enough that I would want to see them perform live.
What I would like to know is, how many people with $400 Glee jackets hanging up in a closet somewhere look at it now and think, “What was I thinking?”.
Well, the problem is I kind of have my heart set on either the Ahwahnee (now The Majestic Yosemite Hotel) or The Stillwater Bar and Grill at Pebble Beach. I really doubt he’d hate either one of those places.
