Senator Marco Rubio introduced The Olympic Tax Elimination Act , a bill that would exempt U.S. Olympic medal winners from paying taxes on their hard-earned medals.  Currently, Olympians who win medals also receive honorariums in the form of cash payments of $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze, with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collecting taxes on these amounts.

Rubio: “We need a fundamental overhaul of our tax code, but we shouldn’t wait any time we have a chance to aggressively fix ridiculous tax laws like this tax on Olympians’ medals and prize money. We can all agree that these Olympians who dedicate their lives to athletic excellence should not be punished when they achieve it.”

According to the Washington Post athletes that win gold medals can face a $8,986 tax bill, silver medal winners a $5,385 tax and bronze winners a $,3502 tax.  Rubio’s bill would exempt the honorariums and the value of the Olympic medal itself. 

Currently the U.S. and China are tied in the Olympic medal count each winning 42 medals thus far.  The U.S. leads in Gold Medal wins with 21 as of Friday afternoon..