Quote:
Originally Posted by Willii
I don't think the link I posted above worked. Splayaa, I really don't think you should be giving tax advise based on wild speculation. Taxable income needs to be reported in the period it is realized not earned. If you get park place and boardwalk in 2014 then this is the reporting period you need to report that 1 mill as taxable income. I am pretty sure mcydees has to abide by federal regulations and report if that grand prize was won.You don't think the feds know about McDonald's??? I don't think you are giving the IRS enough credit. To sum up what a previous poster said. I am not really into ass play, but I def don't want the IRS dick in my ass especially for 200g plus i would owe for a mil grand prize
First off, not giving tax advice. I think I have made that pretty clear, not a professional tax accountant or attorney of any kind, as is no one in this thread. Just stating what seems reasonable to me, and trying to understand it better myself. Its more of a thinking out loud thing.
Secondly, McDonalds does NOT know the prize has been awarded until it is turned in. They DO know (likely) that the two winning game pieces have been issued out but:
They don't know if someone has both of them. Perhaps you got the rare game piece, but you can't seem to land the common one. Maybe you threw the cup away that had the piece you needed, or you kids peeled it off and ran away with it. Maybe the cup hit the ground and never was issued to a customer in the first place. And many other examples that don't need mentioned as to why pieces could be issued and not redeemed.
Which leads to the argument I am making. Until those pieces are redeemed, they don't equal USD (again, in my opinion). And that is how I see $weeps Cash as well. $weeps cash does not equal USD. It equals potential USD, but it doesn't equal the same thing.
Perhaps an example will help. Let's say you are running up your balance from the $2 Global gives you. Is that income? Is that $2 income? What about if you have $45 in your account? Is that income? Is that $45 income? Some of the arguements I see above say "Yep, sure is." Really? Go ahead and try to get your $45 you ran up redeemed for USD. Global will say no. But if I have $45 in Paypal and want that in cash, you can make that happen. Because what is on PayPal is currency, is USD, is taxable.
I can already hear people saying, "But we don't tax just USD." Agreed. But point out to me how many sweepstakes game pieces are taxable?
You don't win the $1 million from McD's by collecting boardwalk and park place. You win the prize when you collect them, attach them to a game board, submit that to McD's and they verify everything is on the up and up. (you don't work at McDonald's or have an inside guy that collects game pieces for you). Once this process all takes place, then I think for sure you could argue that is now income, and if that process all happens on Dec. 31, but you don't cash the check until Jan 3rd, my guess is that million shows as income on the Dec. 31st year.
To beat this horse more, write into to Global and get the free $6, now try to pull it out. Not gonna happen. Even if you cash out for over the $50 amount. If it includes that $6, Global says you need to play it through. If you buy Gold Coins, and get $weeps Cash, you have to play that through as well. If I drop $100 on to PayPal, and an hour later, take it off, PayPal allows it. Because it is actually USD.
$weeps Cash are sweepstakes game tokens, and in my opinion, game tokens are not counted as income on US taxes. What is absolutely counted as income is when I redeem those game tokens for currency.
EDIT: Is anyone else really wanting those fries? I need to find a new example, this McDonald's talk is not helping my waistline. What is in them?
Last edited by splayaa; 02-05-2018 at 09:07 AM.