This is the season for Harpo “Christmas Give Away” Shows. Most recently is was Dr. Phil and his family giving away oodles of gifts to an audience filled with disenfranchised California Fire families. I always watch these shows thinking the same thing:
Are these shows really blessing these poor people?
If I had lost my home to Katrina or California fires, or any other catastrophe, what would be my biggest need? Would it be a huge LCD HD TV, or the latest camcorder? If I don’t have a house to live in, what am I going to do with this huge television?
I was on a television show once and was “blessed” with a wonderful Conn organ. It was three layers of push a button and get a trumpet section; push another button and get a harpsichord sound. Since I am a musician, it was a wonderful gift … until April 15th! I knew nothing about “gift tax” so was totally unprepared for the additional money I was told I owed IRS. It didn’t take any time at all for that organ to turn into my worst nightmare!
Harpo (Oprah spelled backwards) Productions gets big ratings boosts for every “give away” show they put on the air. Doesn’t matter if it’s The Oprah Show, Dr Phil Show, or The Rachael Ray Show. All of the manic screaming and distorted faces thrill their television audience, and these celebrities come off looking like Santa Claus himself. They are also a great time for participating companies to get FREE advertising and, hopefully, increased sales in the last month of the year.
I picture these people going back to where ever they’re living temporarily, loaded down with thousands of dollars’ worth of posh items they would have never bought before the catastrophe took their homes. A cell phone from ATT with two months’ free service? What happens after the two months are up? Expensive bath products to use, even though they may not have a bathtub of their own?
Well, you say, they could give the gifts away as Christmas presents! OK, then who will be responsible for the gift tax? Remember, these audience members’ names and social security numbers are on file for IRS to come after! They don’t leave the studios without giving out that information!
When Oprah started her 19th season, she wowed the world by giving away new “fully-loaded” Pontiac G-6 midsize 2005 sports sedan to each of the 276 members of the studio audience. What caught the eye of Michael Kirsch (Notre Dame) was this statement by a spokesperson for Pontiac (which donated the cars) in an AP story: “Pontiac will pay for the taxes.
What “taxes” was Pontiac talking about? If federal income taxes, how would Pontiac value the car? Presumably it would be valued at something less than the $28,400 MSRP, but how much less? How would Pontiac figure out the appropriate tax rate for each individual audience member? After much discussion it was ascertained that Pontiac would pay only the sales tax for each car, not the federal gift tax! Wow! What a big surprise each of those 276 families had on April 15th! They owed $6,000 – $12,000 extra federal tax, depending on their individual tax brackets.
I’d like to see a Christmas Give Away Show where food, clothes, toys for the kids, and money for apartment rent and utilities given to these poor people! You know, like on Extreme Home Makeover where a mortgage company representative hands the new home owners a statement saying their home is paid for?
Naw, I guess that wouldn’t work. Wouldn’t be glitzy enough for all of us to watch. It wouldn’t give all of these companies a chance to wow us with their chosen high-end Christmas gifts. It just wouldn’t be “good TV”.
