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- GRAPEVINE, Page 17
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- By DAVID ELLIS/Reported by David E. Thigpen
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- TAXMAN, SPARE THAT TREE. The winners of the first Goldman
- Environmental Prizes, a new award for champions of Mother
- Earth, were supposed to get $60,000 apiece. Not so fast, says
- the IRS, which is demanding that the foundation withhold some
- $22,000 in federal and local taxes from the five foreign
- winners. Lois Gibbs, the U.S. honoree, will not be docked since
- she is obliged to declare her winnings as income (prizes to
- Americans, including the Nobels, used to be exempt, but no
- longer are). The notion of taxing people like Kenyan Michael
- Werikhe, who is fighting to save the black rhino, has
- foundation officials fuming. Says one: "Just the amount
- withheld for the Federal Government is equal in some cases to
- five times their annual earnings."
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