Billionaire Oprah Winfrey has made herself into a modern-day Santa Claus by 'giving' her audiences gifts that are actually paid for by Corporate sponsors. If you've never watched the "Oprah's Favorite Things" episode, I highly recommend it. Frenzy of the highest order. If you think you've seen excited women before, think again.
Oprah has raised the generosity bar even higher now, though.
Last week, she gave away 276 cars,(donated by Pontiac). The audience members were quite understandably elated to discover what they had won. They were even somehow selected by the Oprah crowd selection team specifically because they were in need of vehiculation. They were jumping, screaming, indiscriminantly hugging and even crying as they were escorted to the parking lot and shown their bounty. It was a wonderful dream come true, heck, it was more than that, it was Oprah giving them a car.
But then came the bad news.
While Pontiac paid the sales taxes for the vehicles, the benefactees must now pay the income tax on them. For some women, this is a big price to pay.
For a brand new Pontiac G-Six, the model given away on the show, the sticker price is $28,500. The $28,500 would need to be claimed as income so, depending on the individuals tax bracket, the tax could be as high as $7,000. And that was after Pontiac agreed to pay most of the local charges, including state sales tax and licensing fees.So now, the once happy women can either pay $7,000 for a $28,000 car, which is most certainly a good deal, forfeit the car altogether, or sell the car to pay for the taxes. Certainly better than paying full price for a car, but certainly not as good as a FREE CAR.
Oprah may be a very generous person, but those who point to such incidents as this and her "Favorite Things" shows should be reminded over and over that SHE DOESN'T PAY FOR THIS STUFF. The retail value of what Pontiac 'donated' to the women in need is nearly $7,000,000. That's a lot of money. But look what they get for it. Publicity out the wazoo for weeks and an hour-long commercial with high ratings and no Tivo.
love it, hate it, there's more of it at Pacetown.
Article comments
1 - Jon Sobel
Those women weren't just jumping up and down and screaming. At least one of them was literally humping her new car. I never saw anything so silly in my life!
2 - Dirk
A government so greedy (and believe me, nearly every government in the world has tax rules like that) makes me ashamed.
3 - Eric Olsen
I had some semi-substantial winnings on Tic Tac Dough in my early-20s and believe me, the feds were all over that before I got home that day
4 - Mark Saleski
you got any pics of yourself on the show?
man, eric's brush with greatness! (sort of)
it's cool that you were able to do well on a game show. i'd freak out. my stepsons kept urging me to go on vh1's rock & roll jeapardy (because i could answer almost all of the questions)....but i'm sure if i sent on there i'd forget who the leader of the Steve Miller band was.
5 - Trisha
I am 17 with a 6 month old baby. I need help with a lot of things but mostly a car. I do not have a way to and from the doctors and daycare most work to pay rent. I make just a enough to pay rent and elc. and gas. bills i know winter is coming soon and I dont want to but pushing her in a stroller and taking the bus with her again. she got sick last time and I cant pay for all of her med. she need I would like to see if you will e-mail me @ trishamullin248@yahoo.com with information please
Trisha mullin
6 - Libby
Hey, just wanted to point out that Oprah DID in fact pay the taxes on the cars... that's what's so amazing.
Oprah's been doing this kind of thing for how long now? She's really getting it down to an art. The "favorite things" episodes no longer have a random audience; look at the 2004 show with all teachers, or the more recent 2005 holiday episode, with 350 people who volunteered for Hurricane Katrina Relief.
Give the women some credit (or at least look into it) before you critisize her. :)