‘Survivor’ Winner Charged With Filing False Tax Returns

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Tax tip for today—if you win a million dollars on a nationally-televised TV show that made you (at least for a while) one of the best-known people in the world, you should probably list that income on your tax return.

Richard Hatch, the first “Survivor” winner, was charged by U.S. attorneys today (Jan. 18, 2005) with failing to report the $1 million he won on “Survivor,” as well as another $321,000 that he was paid by a Boston radio station.
I understand he won in the first place by being kind of a bad guy, but I don’t think the tax code works the same way as the “Survivor” rules do.

Maybe it should, but it doesn’t.