Check in here if you won a OMDD trip! UPDATE: We HAVE 16 (+1) Winners!!

[TaraPA]

The taxes would be $2000 on a ~$6000 prize? I have never won anything major but 33% seems very high!

Not high at all. It's called "Gift Tax" and it's paid on any winnings of prizes or sweepstakes.

This from an IRS for Dummies website:

"You pay heavily on winnings of gain or cash or prize. What is not widely known is a thing called "the gift tax". It means you are taxed at 50% or more of the winning amount, or gift value. Federal, state and local combined wipes out 60% of the value of the cash or prize, normally."

 

[crashbb]

I found this rule for the contest to be a bit puzzeling....

"Each Canadian resident who is a potential winner will be required to answer correctly a mathematical skill testing question without assistance of any kind whether mechanical or otherwise to be declared a winner and be eligible to collect a prize."

What gives with that? We let stupid Americans do anything they want.

It's Canadian law. There is always a "skill testing question". Generally, something like "2+2=". Not really a big deal.

And, no, I have no idea why we have such a law.

 

[TaraPA]

Nice. By the way, you might want to introduce yourself to a spell-checker before you call people stupid.

I was thinking the exact same thing!

 

[ShelsGoingToDisney]

I tried last night and again just now using Firefox on my Mac and I kept getting "Communication Error". I tried on Safari and it went through fine.

We are a family of 5 but if we won we'd leave DH home. We are taking a cruise this summer with a couple days at WDW. If I win a trip I would take the kids and go again in December to see the Xmas decor that we've always wanted to see. Dh wouldn't have any vacation left to use and honestly one Disney trip per year is enough for him! Crazy!

 

[pwdebbie]

I wonder if the web site will even let anyone know when the winners are picked?

I say just like all other contests you see run you never know who wins or know someone that did win.

I think most of these things are scams. Companies give them away, but to people they want to win.

You find out that some family that has never been to disney won but could never afford to go since they are on welfare.

A family were the father died while serving in the military.

Total fix

Sweeps run by Disney are not scams. There are some people right here on the DIS who have won trips to WDW in the past. I've read their stories here and no scam involved. I'm looking forward to sharing my story with you all one day.

 

[sissy_ib]

Not high at all. It's called "Gift Tax" and it's paid on any winnings of prizes or sweepstakes.

This from an IRS for Dummies website:

"You pay heavily on winnings of gain or cash or prize. What is not widely known is a thing called "the gift tax". It means you are taxed at 50% or more of the winning amount, or gift value. Federal, state and local combined wipes out 60% of the value of the cash or prize, normally."

A gift tax is something different. A sweepstakes win is looked at as income. So it is just added to your income and will be taxed at whatever bracket you are in or the winning bumps you up to. Being military a lot of our income is not taxable plus we are residents of states that either have no income tax or don't charge military income tax. So for me I don't think it would be 33%. For those in higher tax brackets it would be.

 

[heimlichfan]

I had trouble entering online as well - tried through IE, firefox, and safari. Finally just did the text and it worked fine. Now I'll just sit back and wait for my "you are a winner" phone call...

 

[pwdebbie]

About the taxes. When you win a prize over $600, you receive a 1099 that will state the value of the prize you've won. Sometimes you can run the numbers yourself and find the prize is actually cheaper than what is on the 1099. Then you ask the issuer of the 1099 to adjust the amount on the 1099 after you provide them the documentation of the prize actually being valued less. Whatever is on your final corrected 1099 is what you will pay taxes for. In reality, I think you should expect your prize to cost about $2,000 in taxes, just as a previous poster stated. Still less than you would actually pay for a family trip to WDW.

 

[jsilvers]

It's Canadian law. There is always a "skill testing question". Generally, something like "2+2=". Not really a big deal.

And, no, I have no idea why we have such a law.

A brief article about the Canadian skill test requirement for sweepstakes: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/01/72511.

 

[Eldon_Brasche]

Nice. By the way, you might want to introduce yourself to a spell-checker before you call people stupid.

Thank you so much mesaboy2 for pointing out my egregious spelling error that apparently needed to be pointed out by you. I was totally unaware that spelling errors on a web forum and stupidity are as synonymous as you have inferred them to be. This was not covered during my engineering or my MBA studies. Nonetheless, I’m happy for you that your days and nights will be filled with eradicating the web of spelling errors one poster at a time. Good for you!
By the way, in case you missed it, my only point was that I found this rule to be a bit draconian if not laughable and thought I’d make light of it.
Have a Happy New Year.

 

[mom2rtk]

I was totally unaware that spelling errors on a web forum and stupidity are as synonymous as you have inferred them to be.

I actually think he implied it as opposed to inferring it.

Just count me among the stupid Americans.

 

[mesaboy2]

Thank you so much mesaboy2 for pointing out my egregious spelling error that apparently needed to be pointed out by you. I was totally unaware that spelling errors on a web forum and stupidity are as synonymous as you have inferred them to be. This was not covered during my engineering or my MBA studies. Nonetheless, I’m happy for you that your days and nights will be filled with eradicating the web of spelling errors one poster at a time. Good for you!
By the way, in case you missed it, my only point was that I found this rule to be a bit draconian if not laughable and thought I’d make light of it.
Have a Happy New Year.

Call me stupid, along with maybe a few others, and expect some return fire. You could have made your only point without the wide-angle insulting generalization. Simple enough, eh?

I'm very impressed with your credentials, by the way. Thanks for sharing.

 

[crashbb]

By the way, in case you missed it, my only point was that I found this rule to be a bit draconian if not laughable and thought I’d make light of it.
Have a Happy New Year.

Feel free to laugh at the fact that we have to do a bit of math. We'll laugh while you pay 33% of any winnings (contest winnings are not taxed in Canada).

 

[dumbo_buddy]

i will be following along to see if any DISers win!! i hope so!

good luck everyone

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

Thank you so much mesaboy2 for pointing out my egregious spelling error that apparently needed to be pointed out by you. I was totally unaware that spelling errors on a web forum and stupidity are as synonymous as you have inferred them to be. This was not covered during my engineering or my MBA studies. Nonetheless, I’m happy for you that your days and nights will be filled with eradicating the web of spelling errors one poster at a time. Good for you!
By the way, in case you missed it, my only point was that I found this rule to be a bit draconian if not laughable and thought I’d make light of it.
Have a Happy New Year.

I wonder who this reincarnated DISer is now......

 

[jaceraden]

Oh, please let the spelling dude be American (and thus poking fun at himself). Then this would all be funny rather than mud slinging...

 

[wcw57]

eye sea tht thiss thred is gedding weigh owt of hand.........

it wuz suppozed tooo bee funnnn..

ho well

 

[Stupid_Judy]

eye sea tht thiss thred is gedding weigh owt of hand.........

it wuz suppozed tooo bee funnnn..

ho well

Hey look, there's another stupid American! Bet he done win no prize eider.....

 

[Rosanne]

About the taxes. When you win a prize over $600, you receive a 1099 that will state the value of the prize you've won. Sometimes you can run the numbers yourself and find the prize is actually cheaper than what is on the 1099. Then you ask the issuer of the 1099 to adjust the amount on the 1099 after you provide them the documentation of the prize actually being valued less. Whatever is on your final corrected 1099 is what you will pay taxes for. In reality, I think you should expect your prize to cost about $2,000 in taxes, just as a previous poster stated. Still less than you would actually pay for a family trip to WDW.

Also, I was reading a few days back that few sweepstakes winners realize that you can decline portions of the prizes. I am not saying that is the case for sure in this Disney sweepstakes but it may be. That way one could elect to keep the portions of the prize that they desire (for me, the hotel and park tickets, and maybe airfare if I went to DL) and decline others (I might decline the $500 if it could not be applied to food because I don't want a spa treatment, tour or a lot of "stuff". I might prefer to drive myself and the girls to WDW even though it's more than 250 miles because the cost for me to drive is still probably less than the taxes would be on the flights etc.

Again, I don't know if you could decline portions of this particular sweepstakes but if you can, it could keep the tax bill down a bit if there are parts you don't really want.

If I won, I would figure it would cost me in taxes the cost of one of my usual bargain trips if I got nicer accomodations and less than my bargain trips if I received value accomodations.

Some sweepstakes/contests include a cash gift to help offset the cost of the taxes. That is a great bonus.

 

[Colleen27]

The taxes would be $2000 on a ~$6000 prize? I have never won anything major but 33% seems very high!

It would go by your effective tax rate, because the IRS classes prizes as income. But that's a far cry from 33% for most... we're in the 25% bracket but our real effective rate seldom breaks into double digits because of how progressive rates and deductions work. So for us it would be more like $600 in taxes.