Hello all,
The lovely and much talented fashion designer, Vera Wang (who some might
consider the archetypal "cougar" or "MILF"), known mostly for her bridal
dress designs, is featured in the February Harper's Bazaar. Several
photos were featured; the prominent one showed Vera wearing a one-piece
shoulder-less swim suit. She looked stunning in the outfit, especially
when you know she's 62, at the cusp of collecting Social Security. (See,
for example,
http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/aline/designer-vera-wang-stuns-swimsuit-62-22\
5914656.html#more-5801)
There were many unkind comments about the photos, of which some said the
photo looked like it was Photo Shopped by putting her head on a
different wearer of the swim suit. Admittedly, it looked like this was
true, but I doubt Harper's Bazaar, a prominent fashion magazine, would
publish fake photos of Vera Wang. But I would have liked to see
additional photos of Vera in the swim suit just to verify her actually
wearing the swim suit.
In any case, an acquaintance told me she has a friend whose niece
actually interns for Vera. "Lucky her," I said.
My acquaintance also said Vera Wang told the niece that she would design
the niece's wedding dress when she gets married. While I didn't know how
soon the niece will get married, I then asked my acquaintance whether
Vera will design the dress and give it to the niece for free. Should
Vera do this, I continued, the niece would have to declare its value
($20,000?) on her Form1040 and pay income taxes on it. If, however, Vera
prefers not to impose this burden on the niece, her employee, she could
give it to her for free. In which case, Vera must pay a gift tax on her
"gratuity."
But if Vera wants to avoid the gift tax, and instead sell the dress at a
generous 50% "employees getting married discount" (which an IRS
bureaucrat or the "Tax Court" might look askance at), she would have to
charge the employee an NYC sales tax of 8.875% on $10,000 ($887.50). And
after this, Vera would have report the value of the $10,000 for the
dress as "income" on her Form 1040 (or equivalent corporate form) and
pay income taxes on its value
Don't you just love income taxes? Don't you just love how an IRS
bureaucrat can force, at gun point, if necessary, We the People to pay
their fair share of income taxes? (You might rejoice to know that Title
26, United States Code, a.k.a. "The Tax Code," allows "Revenue Agents"
to point guns only when they collect certain taxes. "Income taxes" are
not one of those taxes.")
Thank you for your attention.
Alton