Not to defend the OP but the difference between the lottery and this is that the lottery is giving you cash, thus the taxes can be directly taken out of it. This is a gift card so unless Apple is willing to take the taxes out before they give the winner the card, the winner will have to find some way to pay $3500 in taxes (using your rough figure).
I guess you could try to sell the thing on eBay but how many people there are looking for $10,000 iTunes gift cards? Could you even get a bidder for $3500 to cover the taxes?
Put the prize up on eBay with a high minimum bid for purposes of value assessment. Obviously the IRS can't claim it's worth face value. Then you pay taxes only on the assessed amount.
Not to defend the OP but the difference between the lottery and this is that the lottery is giving you cash, thus the taxes can be directly taken out of it. This is a gift card so unless Apple is willing to take the taxes out before they give the winner the card, the winner will have to find some way to pay $3500 in taxes (using your rough figure).
I guess you could try to sell the thing on eBay but how many people there are looking for $10,000 iTunes gift cards? Could you even get a bidder for $3500 to cover the taxes?
There are lots of things that can be won that aren't cash. If you won a new car, you'll have to pay taxes on that, and they don't provide money to pay those taxes.
There is also a regression analysis which tells you when Apps will overtake Songs in total downloads. The rate of downloads is already higher for Apps.
I bet the rate of growth in songs would keep up if there were a lot more free songs. From my understanding of the app downloads, the free apps are the lion's share of the app downloads.
There are lots of things that can be won that aren't cash. If you won a new car, you'll have to pay taxes on that, and they don't provide money to pay those taxes.
I bet the rate of growth in songs would keep up if there were a lot more free songs. From my understanding of the app downloads, the free apps are the lion's share of the app downloads.
You can sell a car, or many people actually need a car.
This magical prize is non transferable so the "winner" is stuck with paying taxes and gets to use it only in the itunes store for music and apps. (read the rules and terms in my last link).
You cannot sell it.
If it were a cash prize (such as the lottery) you can pay taxes from your winnings.
Many of people have no interest in spending 10,000 for music or apps and Apple really loses nothing from this. They gain 30% for every app or tune and the app developer gets 70% of every purchase with the card. So it's actually more of a prize for Apple, music labels and developers than it is most users.
Ask yourself. Could/would you really want $10,000 worth of music from the store. Is there anywhere close to $10,000 of apps that are even worthy of paying for?
It's a very bad publicity stunt by Apple. If I win a prize I want Cash so I can spend it on what I want to spend it on. It's just not Apple's way.
This magical prize is non transferable so the "winner" is stuck with paying taxes and gets to use it only in the itunes store for music and apps. (read the rules and terms in my last link).
You cannot sell it.
I beg to differ. If you win a car, undoubtedly, the terms of the prize also state that the prize is "not transferable". That doesn't mean that after you receive it, you can't sell it. It just means that you have to be the one who receives it.
In this case the prize is not $10,000 iTunes credit. It is a $10,000 iTunes gift certificate. Which means it can be applied to any iTunes account the recipient wishes to apply it to, or it can be sold to someone else for the same purpose.
Personally, I think that if I won this I might decide not to sell it. I could spend that much on music and movies at the iTunes store. 20 TV seasons already amount to $1,000. 60 or 70 HD movies is another thousand. I am sure I could easily spend a grand on apps once the iPad is released. I could spend a few thou on music right now. And I could keep whatever is left for future use.
But I might contact the IRS to come up with some sort of plan for payment of the applicable taxes, and I would insist on paying taxes only on salable amount (not on face amount). I'm sure there's someone who would be willing to work with me on that.
Unfortunately, however, although I have a real US address I can use and a US iTunes account that I use with gift certificates bought by friends and family in the US, I am not currently an official resident of the US or anywhere there is an iTunes music store, and I wouldn't want to fudge that issue with the authorities.
Can anyone tell me how the counter works? I see the 53px x 6098px image for each counter digit, but I don't understand how that long image get represented as a moving filmstrip or how the speed is adjusted for each digit. Is that CSS Animation?
What $10,000 comes down to in my eyes is basically equivalent to a lifetime of music purchases. Maybe I'd buy iTunes TV shows.
I thought Apple's bonanza for 1 billion had $10k in songs, plus actual hardware, at least one iPod (might have been five or ten) and a computer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AngusYoung
You can sell a car, or many people actually need a car.
The winner would still have to pay taxes on it. Unless you work something out, you'll owe taxes on it the year you won it. And it's going to be more than what would be owed with this iTunes deal.
I wish people would learn basic thinking skills. Remember when reporters were actually intelligent people?
Digital music sales HAVE NOT slowed, and the music executive did not say music sales have slowed. Sales GREW 5%, which is less growth than the quarter before, but it is still growth.
The growth rate has slowed ... does it have to be spelled out for you? If sales were up by i million songs a year ago but only up by 1 single song this year would you not agree that sales have slowed? This is not rocket science .... just applied basic thinking skills .
If you want buy at iTunes something (at action "iTunes reach 10 billion song downloads") new and not extra ordinary, support musician Evgeniy Anderson and buy 2 of his new album on iTunes. 1. RED AIR 2.OVERGROUND.
Comments
Not to defend the OP but the difference between the lottery and this is that the lottery is giving you cash, thus the taxes can be directly taken out of it. This is a gift card so unless Apple is willing to take the taxes out before they give the winner the card, the winner will have to find some way to pay $3500 in taxes (using your rough figure).
I guess you could try to sell the thing on eBay but how many people there are looking for $10,000 iTunes gift cards? Could you even get a bidder for $3500 to cover the taxes?
Put the prize up on eBay with a high minimum bid for purposes of value assessment. Obviously the IRS can't claim it's worth face value. Then you pay taxes only on the assessed amount.
Not to defend the OP but the difference between the lottery and this is that the lottery is giving you cash, thus the taxes can be directly taken out of it. This is a gift card so unless Apple is willing to take the taxes out before they give the winner the card, the winner will have to find some way to pay $3500 in taxes (using your rough figure).
I guess you could try to sell the thing on eBay but how many people there are looking for $10,000 iTunes gift cards? Could you even get a bidder for $3500 to cover the taxes?
There are lots of things that can be won that aren't cash. If you won a new car, you'll have to pay taxes on that, and they don't provide money to pay those taxes.
You can see the rate of growth and the total units sold in graphs here: http://seekingalpha.com/user/567124/instablog
There is also a regression analysis which tells you when Apps will overtake Songs in total downloads. The rate of downloads is already higher for Apps.
I bet the rate of growth in songs would keep up if there were a lot more free songs. From my understanding of the app downloads, the free apps are the lion's share of the app downloads.
There are lots of things that can be won that aren't cash. If you won a new car, you'll have to pay taxes on that, and they don't provide money to pay those taxes.
I bet the rate of growth in songs would keep up if there were a lot more free songs. From my understanding of the app downloads, the free apps are the lion's share of the app downloads.
You can sell a car, or many people actually need a car.
This magical prize is non transferable so the "winner" is stuck with paying taxes and gets to use it only in the itunes store for music and apps. (read the rules and terms in my last link).
You cannot sell it.
If it were a cash prize (such as the lottery) you can pay taxes from your winnings.
Many of people have no interest in spending 10,000 for music or apps and Apple really loses nothing from this. They gain 30% for every app or tune and the app developer gets 70% of every purchase with the card. So it's actually more of a prize for Apple, music labels and developers than it is most users.
Ask yourself. Could/would you really want $10,000 worth of music from the store. Is there anywhere close to $10,000 of apps that are even worthy of paying for?
It's a very bad publicity stunt by Apple. If I win a prize I want Cash so I can spend it on what I want to spend it on. It's just not Apple's way.
This magical prize is non transferable so the "winner" is stuck with paying taxes and gets to use it only in the itunes store for music and apps. (read the rules and terms in my last link).
You cannot sell it.
I beg to differ. If you win a car, undoubtedly, the terms of the prize also state that the prize is "not transferable". That doesn't mean that after you receive it, you can't sell it. It just means that you have to be the one who receives it.
In this case the prize is not $10,000 iTunes credit. It is a $10,000 iTunes gift certificate. Which means it can be applied to any iTunes account the recipient wishes to apply it to, or it can be sold to someone else for the same purpose.
Personally, I think that if I won this I might decide not to sell it. I could spend that much on music and movies at the iTunes store. 20 TV seasons already amount to $1,000. 60 or 70 HD movies is another thousand. I am sure I could easily spend a grand on apps once the iPad is released. I could spend a few thou on music right now. And I could keep whatever is left for future use.
But I might contact the IRS to come up with some sort of plan for payment of the applicable taxes, and I would insist on paying taxes only on salable amount (not on face amount). I'm sure there's someone who would be willing to work with me on that.
Unfortunately, however, although I have a real US address I can use and a US iTunes account that I use with gift certificates bought by friends and family in the US, I am not currently an official resident of the US or anywhere there is an iTunes music store, and I wouldn't want to fudge that issue with the authorities.
I thought Apple's bonanza for 1 billion had $10k in songs, plus actual hardware, at least one iPod (might have been five or ten) and a computer.
You can sell a car, or many people actually need a car.
The winner would still have to pay taxes on it. Unless you work something out, you'll owe taxes on it the year you won it. And it's going to be more than what would be owed with this iTunes deal.
I wish people would learn basic thinking skills. Remember when reporters were actually intelligent people?
Digital music sales HAVE NOT slowed, and the music executive did not say music sales have slowed. Sales GREW 5%, which is less growth than the quarter before, but it is still growth.
The growth rate has slowed ... does it have to be spelled out for you? If sales were up by i million songs a year ago but only up by 1 single song this year would you not agree that sales have slowed? This is not rocket science .... just applied basic thinking skills
If you want buy at iTunes something (at action "iTunes reach 10 billion song downloads") new and not extra ordinary, support musician Evgeniy Anderson and buy 2 of his new album on iTunes. 1. RED AIR 2.OVERGROUND.
search it at iTunes store.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ev...on/id346423901