History Main / TaxmanTakesTheWinnings

* In Peter Schickele Bach's ACappella piece ''Go for Broke'', an IRS agent shows up to claim much of John Q. Public's lottery winnings, followed by state and city taxmen singing in counterpoint.

* In Peter Schickele's ACappella cantata ''Go for Broke'', an IRS agent shows up to claim much of John Q. Public's lottery winnings, followed by state and city taxmen singing in counterpoint.

* ''Creator/RobertAHeinlein'''s ''Literature/TheRollingStones'' had the twins Castor and Pollux make a large sale on Mars. After some adventures (including being jailed for avoiding import duties and taxes), they end up with "a dozen small coins" (implied to be less than a current US dollar). When Hazel expresses astonishment at the tiny amount, they admit that this is their net "after taxes".

* In the prologue of the first ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Knights of Brettonia]]'' novel, the main character awards a peasant who informed on a poaching ring in the area with ownership of a stolen truffle pig. After leaving, he and his best friend note that there's no way that a single truffle pig could possibly make the man enough money to make up for the higher tax bracket he'll be placed in due to the fact that he now owns ''any'' livestock, so the peasant is effectively poorer than he was when he started, something neither see anything wrong with. This serves as an EstablishingCharacterMoment for how superficial the Brettonian code of chivalry is.

** In the short "Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb" (providing the page image above), Curly wins $50,000 in a radio sweepstakes, and the stooges think they have it made. That is until they find out that after taxes Curly is only left with $4.85, leaving them unable to pay for the damages to the expensive hotel they're living in. This scenario was repeated in "A Missed Fortune", a remake featuring Shemp.[[note]]"Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb" was released in 1938 during the Great Depression when President FDR signed tax hikes to finance social welfare and counteract high unemployment.[[/note]]

'''Elmer Fudd:''' [[TheDogBitesBack No, but I'm gonna get you!]]

Mildly TruthInTelevision, as prizes are part of Other Income on US tax forms, which, unless you're obscenely wealthy or extremely bad at filling taxes out, isn't going to lose more than 30% to taxes, and inheritance taxes only kick in for the part that's above $5 million since 2011, so both would leave plenty of value for the recipient. For perspective, in France, prizes are not considered income on the year you win them, whereas inheritance taxes and deductions can vary a lot depending on your relation to the deceased person, from nothing if you are the widow(er) or legal partner of the deceased, to 60% for an unrelated (i.e. without family ties) stranger. Fiction just likes to exaggerate it for comedic purposes.

* During the RoadTripPlot ''No Coins Please'' (by Creator/GordonKorman), Artie Geller spends his road trip across the country engaging in half-a-dozen get rich schemes. One scheme involves bribing the employees closing a bankrupt factory to turn it into a disco for a night. Another is renting several cows and charging tourists a dollar a minute to milk them while egging them into competitions due to how little milk it's possible to get in a minute. The book ends with the FBI catching up to Artie and reciting a LongList of about forty things he's done wrong (not paying any taxes, not getting a license or health inspection for his milking business, using the factory without permission of its owners, selling liquor without a license, failing to pay utility bills etc.). They agree to drop the charges if Artie makes restitution, leaving him with a profit of just $2.96 from his combined hustles.

** In yet again another Italian story, Scrooge and family find the bronze wolf cubs that (in this story) were originally part of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitoline_Wolf Capitoline Wolf]], buried in a wheat field Scrooge owns in Italy. Knowing that Italian law establishes any archaeological finding is property of the state, the Triplets suggest to immediately turn them in, while Donald suggests to smuggle them to the US, reveal them to the public, and then "donate" them to Italy to cash in on the publicity. Scrooge goes with Donald's suggestion, but they're caught in the act by the police (warned by a historian that had previously tried to take the wolves for himself but had come back to his senses after Scrooge recovered the wolves) and brought to a judge, who orders the seizing of the wolves, tells Scrooge of the finder's fee... And that for attempting to smuggle the wolves he's instead receiving a hefty fine.

* Music/TheBeatles' song "Taxman" from ''Music/{{Revolver}}'' is a scathing critique on taxes. Ironically in the UK winnings from the lottery, gambling or a game show are tax-free anyway.

** Another Creator/DonRosa story, ''The Last King Of El Dorado'', has this happen to Scrooge ''again''. He discovers the treasure of El Dorado; in reality, an ancient lakebed full of golden artifacts left behind by the tribe that served as inspiration for the legend of the Golden City, who used to dump the gold in their sacred lake as sacrifices for the gods. The plot starts with Scrooge coming across an old document of ownership for the area set up by a 16th-century bank, which gave legal ownership of the land and its content. After a rival chase with Flintheart Glomgold to the treasure, Scrooge finds the gold, only to be interrupted by officials representing the government of Peru, who explains that though Scrooge is the technical owner of the property holding, no taxes had been paid on the land since the last holder died 300 years before, and the property was rescinded to the government a few decades after that. Like the previous story, a case of RealityEnsues.

* {{Subverted}} in another Italian story: Donald has a large winning at a lottery and the taxman takes most of what Donald has...''after'' he paid all his debts to Scrooge, he bought a safe to keep all his winnings rather than bringing them all in bank, had to repair his home when a crazy thief with a bulldozer ''stole the safe and all it contained'' (right after Scrooge had warned him that keeping so much money in his home without the immense defensive set of the Money Bin could get him robbed), and had to pay the damage caused by recovering the money a second time when the Beagle Boys replaced the armored van he had leased to bring the money to the bank safely (in fact the taxman intercepts him when Donald is sneaking around to bring what he still had to the bank). Thankfully, he still had enough to pay for the vacation he had promised Daisy.

** In the short "Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb", Curly wins $50,000 in a radio sweepstakes, and the stooges think they have it made. That is until they find out that after taxes Curly is only left with $4.85, leaving them unable to pay for the damages to the expensive hotel they're living in. This scenario was repeated in "A Missed Fortune", a remake featuring Shemp.[[note]]"Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb" was released in 1938 during the Great Depression when President FDR signed tax hikes to finance social welfare and counteract high unemployment.[[/note]]

** In "An Ache in Every Stake" another con artist sells the boys the rights to a "lost mine" loaded with "a hundred thousand tons of pure gold worth $35 an ounce." Curly determines that after taxes said gold is worth "a dollar and a half."

* {{Subverted}} in another Italian story: Donald has a large winning at a lottery and the taxman takes most of what Donald has... ''After'' he paid all his debts to Scrooge, he bought a safe to keep all his winnings rather than bringing them all in bank, had to repair his home when a crazy thief with a bulldozer ''stole the safe and all it contained'' (right after Scrooge had warned him that keeping so much money in his home without the immense defensive set of the Money Bin could get him robbed), and had to pay the damage caused by recovering the money a second time when the Beagle Boys replaced the armored van he had leased to bring the money to the bank safely (in fact the taxman intercepts him when Donald is sneaking around to bring what he still had to the bank). Thankfully, he still had enough to pay for the vacation he had promised Daisy.

--->'''Moe:''' ''(unamused)'' Without tax... ''(punches Curly in the belly)''

* In between the first and second ''Film/NationalTreasure'' movies, this happens to Riley Poole and at the beginning of the second film, his Ferrari is impounded by the IRS while he is signing copies of his book. [[spoiler:As thanks for the team finding Cíbola and looking something up for him in the eponymous President's Book, the President pardons the debt... and Riley promptly puts the Ferrari in the wrong gear and backs it into a parked car.]]

-->'''Guard:''' Holy shit, that's great! That's like winning the sweepstakes! ... Isn't it?

* At the end of the ''WesternAnimation/BarneyBear'' cartoon "Heir Bear", the taxman comes to take "Uncle Sam's share" from the treasure Barney had just uncovered. He takes a coin... for Barney to keep while he collects the rest.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' has Jane and George making it big on betting in races (using [[AppliedPhlebotinum a pair of glasses that can see a few minutes into the future]]) and running away from a pair of men that they think belongs to TheMafia... only to find out that the men belong to the Intergalactic Revenue Service and that the government's cut of their winnings leaves them with only one (space) dollar.

* The WesternAnimation/HeckleAndJeckle cartoon "Pirate's Gold" has the two birds invading a pirate ship and making off with his treasure. A mousy little man who turned up frequently shows up at the end and identifies himself as a tax collector. He glomps all but one coin ("This is yours... after taxes.")

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Homer wins the lottery but for plot-relevant reasons has Barney turn in the ticket for the winnings. Barney gets a GiantNoveltyCheck, and the IRS guys get another Giant Novelty Check for their portion. Unusually for this trope, the amount they're shown to take wasn't THAT big, about 30% of the winnings, but the trope is still played straight for the joke. What makes this funnier is that they plan to spend their take of the winnings on a survey to decide what to do with the money (which would have already been spent on the survey).

A somewhat rare variant involves someone finding BuriedTreasure, which is TruthInTelevision for a lot of countries because anything of significant archaeological value is automatically seized by the state [[ItBelongsInAMuseum in order that it be studied by qualified historians and eventually placed in a museum.]] [[DownplayedTrope However]], in real life this tends to include a finder's fee, often equal or even greater than what the item would fetch at auction; fictional examples often forget to mention this for RuleOfFunny purposes.

Mildly TruthInTelevision; prizes are part of Other Income on US tax forms, which unless you're obscenely wealthy or extremely bad at filling taxes out isn't going to lose more than 30% to taxes, and inheritance taxes only kick in for the part that's above 5 million in 2011, so both would leave plenty of value for the recipient. For perspective, in France, prizes are not considered income on the year you win them, whereas inheritance taxes and deductions can vary a lot depending on your relation to the deceased person, from nothing if you are the widow(er) or legal partner of the disfunct, to 60% for an unrelated (ie without family ties) stranger. Fiction just likes to exaggerate it for comedic purposes.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Homer wins the lottery but for plot-relevant reasons has Barney turn in the ticket for the winnings. Barney gets a GiantNoveltyCheck, and the IRS guys get another Giant Novelty Check for their portion. Unusually for this trope, the amount they're shown to take wasn't THAT big, about 30% of the winnings, but the trope is still played straight for the joke.

* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'': In "Aunt Bee on TV", Aunt Bee wins the grand prize on a game show: an entire kitchen full of new appliances ''and'' a full-length mink coat. Unfortunately, a taxman decides to pay a visit to Mayberry to remind Andy how much tax is due on the winnings. Aunt Bee ends up selling most of the appliances as well as the mink coat; [[SugarWiki/Heartwarming still she has enough left to promise to treat Andy and Opie to a vacation ''on her''.]]

* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'': In "Aunt Bee on TV", Aunt Bee wins the grand prize on a game show: an entire kitchen full of new appliances ''and'' a full-length mink coat. Unfortunately, a taxman decides to pay a visit to Mayberry to remind Andy how much tax is due on the winnings. Aunt Bee ends up selling most of the appliances as well as the mink coat; [[{{Heartwarming}} still she has enough left to promise to treat Andy and Opie to a vacation ''on her''.]]

* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'': In "Aunt Bee on TV", Aunt Bee wins the grand prize on a game show: an entire kitchen full of new appliances ''and'' a full-length mink coat. Unfortunately, a taxman decides to pay a visit to Mayberry to remind Andy how much tax is due on the winnings. Aunt Bee ends up selling most of the appliances as well as the mink coat; [[Heartwarming still she has enough left to promise to treat Andy and Opie to a vacation ''on her''.]]

* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'': In "Aunt Bee on TV", Aunt Bee wins the grand prize on a game show: an entire kitchen full of new appliances ''and'' a full-length mink coat. Unfortunately, a taxman decides to pay a visit to Mayberry to remind Andy how much tax is due on the winnings. Aunt Bee ends up selling most of the appliances as well as the mink coat; [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming still she has enough left to promise to treat Andy and Opie to a vacation ''on her''.]]

* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'': In "Aunt Bee on TV", Aunt Bee wins the grand prize on a game show: an entire kitchen full of new appliances ''and'' a full-length mink coat. Unfortunately, a taxman decides to pay a visit to Mayberry to remind Andy how much tax is due on the winnings. Aunt Bee ends up selling most of the appliances as well as the mink coat; [[HeartwarmingMoments still she has enough left to promise to treat Andy and Opie to a vacation ''on her''.]]