There is no big tangible (like a car) the winner could sell to help pay the windfall tax.

The total retail value of all the "sellable" items is less than $8K, and you couldn't get full value for them anway.... so, this Grand Prize is more of an albatross.

Who's going to take a hundred-thousand-dollar vacation that will put them in debt to Uncle Sam to the tune of $60k? Heck, if I had a discretionary $60k and a few months to research Expedia, I could probably duplicate that vacation and take 6 people instead of 4.

Very clever Hollywood Marketing & Accounting Techniques! They probably designed this contest knowing full well that the winner will never accept the prize once the liabiity is spelled out to him/her.

I once ran a sweepstakes in which we gave away a perfectly restored 1947 Buick Roadmaster (like the "Rainman" car). I tied my promotion into Buick's reintroduction of the Roadmaster that year (c. 1992-93). The ultimate winner was given the choice of the antique, or a brand new Buick Roadmaster. He chose the antique because he was a fan of old cars and it was a spectacular restoration. He signed the tax liability acknowledgement form we provided him at that time. That was in October. In March, the man called me - shaken - he'd just learned what his taxes would be, and begged us to buy the car back from him. We did.

"Careful what you wish for" :-)


Jeanie