Free Windows Vista Business & Office Professional 2007 ?

[WT]

With the tax amount currently in debate, I still have a hard time complaining about $700 of MS software that I might pay $170'ish for, considering I will eventually want/need it on at least one of my PCs.

 

[WT]

Link to the W9 form online so that Warpirate doesn't keep bumping this thing every 15 minutes

MS online W9 form

The channel9 thread is full of info as well, so read that (at least page 14 on) for addtnl info.

Channel 9 thread

 

[OAKside24]

Got the email from Power Together, nice confirm. Who will be first to have gift in hand?!
I assume the RTM was in mid-November so the dalievery date of mid-January is coming fast.
That would make it my most expensive (albeit late) xMas present. W00-fugging-00T.

 

[eklass]

Originally posted by: Warpirate
I apologize for my idiocy. I had not read the second email in its entirety. Please forgive my inability to function as a human with half a brain.

fantastic post

i should make that my sig

 

[commOdog]

Fax number was busy ALL... DAY... LONG...

 

[Dulanic]

Originally posted by: commOdog
Fax number was busy ALL... DAY... LONG...

I just left my fax on redial all night, it went through sometime last night hehe.

 

[DEQGuy]

Got both confirmation emails today! Whoo Hoo! Sent in the W9 and got into the fax line 2nd try. Hope 6 to 8 weeks past RTM is what we figure and I'll be getting my most "exprensive" late christmas presents in a week or so. Gotta love Microsoft when they give stuff away.

 

[RKS]

I'm an idiot

 

[Peetoeng]

Do I just need to fax the first page from W-9?

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: DEQGuy
Got both confirmation emails today! Whoo Hoo! Sent in the W9 and got into the fax line 2nd try. Hope 6 to 8 weeks past RTM is what we figure and I'll be getting my most "exprensive" late christmas presents in a week or so. Gotta love Microsoft when they give stuff away.

I don't know if I would say "Give stuff away" when we have to pay over $150 for it to the Fed's if you get both...the 26% tax bracket puts $600 at costing $156 in tax funds which I am not sure is worth it. Can anybody refute my numbers?

 

[CrazyChuckster]

Got my email as well.....

 

[severtki]

Originally posted by: Warpirate

Originally posted by: zigner
You can receive a prize or award as either an employee or a non employee. If you receive it as an employee, your employer is required to add the value of that prize or award to your paycheck and withhold income taxes from it. If you receive it as a non employee, and the value of the prize or award exceeds $600, the paying business or organization is required to issue you federal form 1099-MISC. A copy of that form is sent to the IRS so they will be looking for that item on your tax return.

The tax you owe depends on which tax bracket you are in.

...
This form is issued to you and you report it when filing on your IRS form. This probably means that your all going to have to file form 1040a. If your used to filing 1040ez your not going to like it.

I love it. We've had 40 different tax experts pontificating on the intricacies of the IRS tax code. At the audit: "Sir, who was your tax advisor that provided this information to you?" "The tax experts over in the Hot Deals Forum at Anandtech."

...No offense to anyone in particular, it's just funny to me. Anyone here ACTUALLY a tax expert in the legal sense of the term?

 

[QuixoticOne]

Originally posted by: Ryland

Originally posted by: DEQGuy
Got both confirmation emails today! Whoo Hoo! Sent in the W9 and got into the fax line 2nd try. Hope 6 to 8 weeks past RTM is what we figure and I'll be getting my most "exprensive" late christmas presents in a week or so. Gotta love Microsoft when they give stuff away.

I don't know if I would say "Give stuff away" when we have to pay over $150 for it to the Fed's if you get both...the 26% tax bracket puts $600 at costing $156 in tax funds which I am not sure is worth it. Can anybody refute my numbers?

Actually it'll be over $200 AFAIK --
Vista Business Retail version MSRP: $299
MS Office 2007 Professional retail MSRP: $499

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/FX101754511033.aspx
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/software/mic...g-announced-still-expensive-198616.php

So that'd be 26% or more of $798, or $207.48 or more in federal tax for many
receiving both; if you get just one of them they aren't required toreport it on a 1099;
if you get both they report both.

But I figure that it'll be at least 4 years before there's another OS or Office
version that'll be a compelling upgrade relative to these, so that's under $60/year
for both which isn't too bad for an upgrade even if one was "pretty happy" with the older
generation of XP / MS Office 2003 or whatever.

Of course what they could have done is just given away NFR versions of the same
software and had the pricing be something like 60% off of the MSRP of the full
retail versions and everyone would have been just as happy and also had much less
tax burden for the same functionality software... doh.

 

[Ryland]

I still don't understand why it is being considered as income vs a gift like the powertogether site originally stated. If it was a gift then reporting limit is $12,000...

Thanks for the actual numbers Quix

 

[SimMike2]

I only got Vista, not Office 2007, and my email didn't contain any information about a W9 or anything else.

Here is the entire email I got:

"Congratulations, you?ve learned how to build well-connected, visually stunning applications with Windows Vista, and now your free, full-licensed copy of Windows Vista Business is on its way.

Please be patient. We cannot ship your gift until Windows Vista Business is released to manufacturing. Your free software should arrive in six to eight weeks after RTM. If it doesn't arrive after eight weeks, please contact a customer service representative at Windows Vista and Office Kit Order Admin. Be sure to have your confirmation number 5xxxx on hand."

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: SimMike2
I only got Vista, not Office 2007, and my email didn't contain any information about a W9 or anything else.

Here is the entire email I got:

"Congratulations, you?ve learned how to build well-connected, visually stunning applications with Windows Vista, and now your free, full-licensed copy of Windows Vista Business is on its way.

Please be patient. We cannot ship your gift until Windows Vista Business is released to manufacturing. Your free software should arrive in six to eight weeks after RTM. If it doesn't arrive after eight weeks, please contact a customer service representative at Windows Vista and Office Kit Order Admin. Be sure to have your confirmation number 5xxxx on hand."

The W9 is only needed if you got both Vista AND Office.

 

[NatePo717]

Originally posted by: Ryland
I still don't understand why it is being considered as income vs a gift like the powertogether site originally stated. If it was a gift then reporting limit is $12,000...

Thanks for the actual numbers Quix

The reason there is tax applied to this is because it is not being considered a "Gift" but a "Prize" and prizes are subject to taxes (over a certain amount which I believe is a couple hundred dollars) since a prize is considered income by the federal government.

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: NatePo717

Originally posted by: Ryland
I still don't understand why it is being considered as income vs a gift like the powertogether site originally stated. If it was a gift then reporting limit is $12,000...

Thanks for the actual numbers Quix

The reason there is tax applied to this is because it is not being considered a "Gift" but a "Prize" and prizes are subject to taxes (over a certain amount which I believe is a couple hundred dollars) since a prize is considered income by the federal government.

Good point. What was throwing me off was that they kept saying "gift" on the website. I wonder what the difference is between "gift" and "prize". Why is it legally (at least for tax purposes) a prize?

 

[Troy S]

WTF is this about "exempt from backup withholding"? As an individual I should not be checking this option right?

 

[nutxo]

Originally posted by: Ryland

Originally posted by: NatePo717

Originally posted by: Ryland
I still don't understand why it is being considered as income vs a gift like the powertogether site originally stated. If it was a gift then reporting limit is $12,000...

Thanks for the actual numbers Quix

The reason there is tax applied to this is because it is not being considered a "Gift" but a "Prize" and prizes are subject to taxes (over a certain amount which I believe is a couple hundred dollars) since a prize is considered income by the federal government.

Good point. What was throwing me off was that they kept saying "gift" on the website. I wonder what the difference is between "gift" and "prize". Why is it legally (at least for tax purposes) a prize?

Gifts arent tax deductible for MS maybe. A prize otoh can be promotional expenses??

 

[thinlizzie]

No email yet

 

[QuixoticOne]

Originally posted by: Ryland
I still don't understand why it is being considered as income vs a gift like the powertogether site originally stated. If it was a gift then reporting limit is $12,000...

Thanks for the actual numbers Quix

It is a "gift" however I believe it's a question of a difference between 'gifts from an individual'
versus 'gifts from an organization / corporation'
(I haven't traced this all the way back to the tax code law,
but I see similar rules about gift W9 reporting and taxation from many different corporations
and educational institutions).

When an ORGANIZATION / CORPORATION gives gifts / prizes / etc. to an individual
that isn't their employee: a) the gifts are always taxable "income" for the RECIPIENT,
and b) the GIVING organization must report the value of the gifts via a 1099
income report to the recipient if the gifts / prizes values exceed $600 / year.
So in the case of getting a gift from an organization that's not your employer, you
always are liable for paying income tax on the value of the gifts, though gifts with
less value than $600/year/giver just aren't mandatory for the GIVER to report on a 1099.
Any gifts / prizes given by an organization to EMPLOYEES of that organization
are mostly always reported as taxable income to the employee, however, IIRC.


When an INDIVIDUAL gives a gift, the gift isn't taxable to the recipient as long
as the received gift's value is under some set limit that I don't
recall at the moment (like $10,000 or $25,000 per year).
Any individual can give any number of people gifts up to that predetermined value limit
without any tax implication to THEMSELVES, THE GIVER. However if some individual
gives gift(s) to another person exceeding the allowed value in a year then the GIVER
pays tax on the gifts given, NOT the recipient.

I haven't seen an explicit indication of WHAT the claimed retail value of these gifts
are, though the "full retail product" prices from MS's website are as I listed before
($499/Office Pro 2007; $299 Vista Business). We're not actually GETTING the
full retail products though, at least in that the VISTA is reportedly lacking the
retail box packaging and will just be a "disc in a mailer".

MS OFFICE 2007 PRO won't have any packaging or disc at all, it'll be a downloaded
product with the activation key you get in the mail.

The LICENCE and FEATURES of the VISTA & OFFICE are claimed to be
"fully licenced" according to the promotion site etc. but nowhere does it totally
explain if that's 100% the same as the "RETAIL" license; in theory it could be a
OEM or NFR or other license but I belive the heresay is that it'll be a full retail license,
though not full retail packaging.

In theory the lack of the retail packaging and accessories could be said to make it
a different valued product than the "retail box" versions, though I have seen no
indication that they'll 1099 report anything less than the "Full RETAIL MSRP" tax
value to recipients, even so. Though if they wanted to be nice they could report
the "received value" as the same as a NFR copy or a "licence only no media" version
of Office since they're not even sending install media for it. NFR, OEM, and
"no-media / volume licence only" software usually does have a substantially lower
price and reportable value than the full retail kit, though, even though the functions
may be identical once installed. In some ways it's to Microsoft's advantage to
claim the value as full retail box MSRP, though, in that THEY could get a TAX DEDUCTION
for that full amount of expenses related to product marketing expenses
($800 x 30,000 = big tax write off) even though the actual cost to them per copy
given out will be like $10 or less for media & internet bandwidth & shipping & handling etc.



f

 

[commOdog]

My personal feeling is that, in all reality, if the IRS wants to audit me over my 1040ez form because i forgot to claim I got a copy of free software, i don't give a crap.

I'm single, make less than 100k a year, no kids, I don't itemize. I doubt they will add a flag to their software to check for a bunch of computer geeks who didn't claim their "prize" from microsoft.

And if they do, who gives a rats ass. Audit me.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: commOdog

My personal feeling is that, in all reality, if the IRS wants to audit me over my 1040ez form because i forgot to claim I got a copy of free software, i don't give a crap.

I'm single, make less than 100k a year, no kids, I don't itemize. I doubt they will add a flag to their software to check for a bunch of computer geeks who didn't claim their "prize" from microsoft.

And if they do, who gives a rats ass. Audit me.

Obviously you have never been audited... it's something you want to avoid at all costs.

 

[Mr Bob]

"I didn't think it would happen to me"