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How much did Oprah car giveaway cost?
Although receiving a car at a $6,000 price tag is a significant discount, audience members had been chosen by the Oprah staff based on their need for a car. Most individuals had to scramble to come up with the funds to be able to receive any benefit from the prize.
How did Oprah afford all those cars?
It was considered one of the greatest publicity stunts ever, as each G6 was worth around $28,500. However, the cars were not paid for by Oprah. All 276 G6s were donated by Pontiac, which also paid the state sales tax. Each new owner also paid for other taxes reaching up to $6,000.
Who paid for the cars that Oprah gave away?
For one thing, the gift wasn't really from Oprah at all. Pontiac had donated the cars, paying the hefty price tag out of its advertising budget, because the company hoped that that the giveaway would drum up some enthusiasm for its new G-6 line.
How much did Oprah pay Lindsay Lohan?
Lindsay Lohan will get to keep her $2 million paycheck for her television show on Oprah Winfrey's network after an 'intense showdown' with the TV mogul. The talk show host confronted the troubled star at her house to make sure she was serious about doing a show for her OWN network.
Who gave Oprah a Rolls Royce?
THE GIFT: A Rolls-Royce Corniche II convertible. THE CIRCUMSTANCE: Travolta gave Oprah the 1988 car, valued at more than $350,000, to thank her for her friendship. WHAT CAME NEXT: The talk show host and media mogul kept the Rolls at her home in Santa Barbara, California, until 2008, when she put it up for auction.
How did Oprah make a billion dollars?
Winfrey founded and is chair and CEO of a multimedia production company, Harpo Productions, and founder of O, The Oprah Magazine. She is also a spokeswoman and partial owner of many brands, including WW. Her generous philanthropic work reaches local, national, and global platforms.
How did Oprah Winfrey use free enterprise help?
She has used the free enterprise system to start her own businesses, which has definitely made an impact on our economy. Many say that the free enterprise systems only works for wealthy people to start their own businesses and compete for consumers, but this is a false statement.
Does Oprah own her own jet?
Oprah Winfrey's private jet It is a Global Express XRS from the Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier. The value of this aircraft is 42 million dollars. The famous host who made her fortune on the small screen describes the purchase of a private jet as her greatest luxury.
How many cars did Oprah give away?
The original plan included only 25 cars for the giveaway. The idea for the car giveaway came from Oprah’s friend Gayle King, who sat next to someone from Pontiac on a flight and struck up a conversation. The show had originally asked Pontiac for 25 cars to give out, but kept asking the automaker for more until the total number reached 276.
What car did Oprah give to her audience?
On that day, Oprah gave all 276 members of her studio audience a brand new Pontiac G6, and the annals of pop culture got a new phrase: “You get a car!”.
Did Oprah Winfrey pay sales tax?
Most expenses were paid by the show, but not all. The Oprah Winfrey Show paid the sales tax and registration for each car, but not the gift tax, which could be up to $7,000 for some audience members. While the show did offer a cash prize for those who didn’t want to or couldn’t pay the gift tax, some audience members complained to the press, ...
Did Oprah Winfrey put red bows on cars?
Red bows on the cars. Oprah made her producers replace the red bows on all 276 cars the night before the giveaway; she thought they were too small. These appear to be the bows they ended up going with, despite Oprah recalling in the podcast that she told her producers “the bows should cover the whole hood of the car.”.
When did Oprah Winfrey say "new Pontiac G-6"?
On this day in 2004, talk show host Oprah Winfrey uttered those words to a studio audience. Moments later, amid the shrieks, 276 members of Winfrey's studio audience each found themselves with a new Pontiac G-6 sedan. The cars carried an individual retail price tag of about $28,500.
Is a car a gift?
There's an easy answer: the cars were not gifts. Remember, the cars were part of a promotion. Audience members were the lucky recipients of what could be considered prizes and prize winnings are subject to tax. It's akin to winning the lottery, just in car form. You can find the specific - and simple - language focuses on prizes in the Tax Code here:
Is Forbes opinion their own?
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Is the free car always free?
The free car was a hit for ratings, but some audience members claimed a bigger hit: to their wallets. It turns out that free isn't always free. While General Motors handled the state sales tax on each of the new cars (around $1,800 per car), plus licensing fees, audience members were tasked with paying federal and state income taxes on the value of their new vehicle. To keep things simple, for reporting purposes, General Motors issued forms 1099-MISC to the recipients.
Did Oprah give away all expenses?
But the tax man would not stand in the way of one of the most powerful women in the country. Oprah continued to host giveaways to audience members. In 2010, in honor of her 25th and final season, Oprah gave her entire audience an all expense paid trip to Australia. This time, she really meant all expenses - including taxes. A CPA was reportedly waiting in the wings to settle all of the tax issues associated with the trip. You can see a list of Oprah's favorite giveaway episodes here.
How many cars did Oprah give away?
While merely chatting on the plane, before any real details had been hammered out, the exec had agreed to give away 25 cars to The Oprah Winfrey Show. Well, as everyone now knows, Oprah and the producers pushed so hard that Pontiac ended up taking a big hit and shifted from 25 cars to 276 cars.
How much did Oprah's gift tax cost?
And I know that a number of the people in Oprah's audience really could not afford the $6-7,000.00 in gift taxes they were hit with.
What happened after Oprah gave out 276 cars?
The interesting, although perhaps not particularly surprising, response that happened after Oprah had given out that huge lot of 276 cars was that many more people started trying to get ahold of a pass to watch the taping her show.
What did Oprah say about the keys?
However, Oprah only said that there was one more set of keys in one of the boxes...but once the boxes were all opened by everone...everyone lost their minds and Oprah got to scream that famous line for clarity..."YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR!"
What questions did the 'How old' question ask?
They asked how people got to work, how old their current car was, or if they owned a car at all.
Did Oprah ever give out a heart attack?
So, given that this was the biggest giveaway that Oprah had ever done, the producers thought that it would be best to be safe and bring in some paramedics just in case someone reacted so intensely that they passed out or had a heart attack or something of the like. Luckily, nothing too terrible happened.
What was the interesting thing that VW did?
This was an attempt to open up the Beetle market to men, which was not typically a market that had been tapped by the Beetle, which tended to be a female-driven car, historically. Well, one of the guys said he chose silver and loves the way the car looks and drives.
How much is the Oprah Winfrey car worth?
Oprah surprised her studio audience with 276 brand new Pontiac G6 sedans worth over $7 million. While the surprise went down as one of the show’s most memorable moments, the aftermath of the giveaway left recipients faced with a hefty tax bill.
Who sponsored the Pontiac giveaway?
The giveaway was sponsored by Pontiac, a General Motors brand, as a promotional marketing campaign. While General Motors covered the price tag of $28,500 and the sales tax of $1,800, the gift tax was left for the prize winners to handle.
How many people did Oprah call on stage?
The segment began with Oprah calling eleven random audience members on stage and announcing that they had each won a car. After their excitement had died down, she told the entire audience to retrieve gift boxes from under their seats and announced that one of the boxes also contained car keys.
What car did Oprah drive on her 15th anniversary?
It’s the 15th anniversary of one of the greatest publicity stunts in all of television—the day Oprah Winfrey surprised an audience of hundreds of people in need of reliable transportation with brand-new Pontiac G6 sedans, but then left them on the hook for the thousands in taxes that came with them. Advertisement.
How many people did Oprah pull from the audience?
The episode started with Oprah pulling 11 people seemingly at random from the audience and announcing what they all had in common—they all needed a brand new car, so Oprah gave each of them one. The audience, suffice it to say, began to go crazy.
Why did Oprah write checks?
In later promotions, Forbes points out, the Oprah team had learned their lesson, writing checks and giving them to audience members along with the pricey prizes in an effort to offset the sudden burden of a spiked income tax.
Did the Oprah stunt cost anything?
All-in-all, the stunt didn’t cost Oprah, nor the television network, effectively anything. As has been recounted many times, the entire stunt was part of a marketing strategy by Pontiac to get the Oprah faithful of America to go out and buy the new G6. Because of this, the sticker price of every car handed out on television was paid ...
What happens if an audience member sells a VW for more than Oprah's accountants told the?
But if an audience member sold the VW for more than Oprah’s accountants told the IRS it was worth when they paid the estimated tax, there could be even more tax due.
What happens if you sell your VW?
But by selling their VWs, they’d be able to pocket the cash and continue to drive whatever beat-up wreck that brought them to the show. But if an audience member sold the VW for more than Oprah’s accountants told the IRS it was worth when they paid the estimated tax, there could be even more tax due.
Does Oprah give cars?
First off, it’s clear that Oprah does not consider the cars and the rest of the giveaway to be actual gifts from her to the audience. In other words, the money for this stuff isn’t coming out of her pocket. If these were straight gifts, says Strauss, the audience wouldn’t owe tax on any of the goods.
Does Oprah have to pay 20 percent tax?
Strauss says it’s Oprah’s obligation to with hold tax at a 20 percent rate. But the payment of that 20 percent tax by Oprah also becomes a taxable event for audience members. And, Strauss says, they’ll have to come up with the cash to cover that amount, unless Oprah again rides to the rescue.
Is Oprah's 20 percent tax taxable?
But the payment of that 20 percent tax by Oprah also becomes a taxable event for audience members. And, Strauss says, they’ll have to come up with the cash to cover that amount, unless Oprah again rides to the rescue. Some audience members might find out later that they are in the 35 percent tax bracket.
