Xbox Game Pass offers players the opportunity to play numerous games through one subscription. In some cases, the subscription service even includes new games directly for your release. Using the Game Pass for free for 40 years actually sounds good, but a gamer from the USA saw it differently.
What is this win? Reddit user “Elvite” reported in a post to the social network that he won a lifetime membership for Xbox Game Pass in a Microsoft Rewards sweepstakes and declined the prize (via reddit).
Microsoft Rewards is a way to earn points by using Microsoft services like Edge or Bing and completing quizzes. You can exchange the Microsoft Rewards points for in-game currencies, for example.
However, Elvite’s lifelong profit is not really lifelong, but limited to 40 years. Elvite is American and says Microsoft must provide the US tax authorities with an equivalent of the price. “For life” should be specified with a year, in this case 40 years.
“I wish the award wasn’t for life”
Why did the player decline the win? According to Elvite, he declined the prize because in the USA the price of a sweepstakes or its equivalent is taxed.
In his post on Reddit, he says that claiming the award would give him an additional $7,300 in taxable income for 2023. The sum is the equivalent of the price that would cost a 40-year Xbox Game Pass subscription.
Of course I declined the offer. […] If I live less than 10 years from now, I make a loss. I wish the price wasn’t lifetime, but something that made the tax bill easier to digest, like 10 years of Game Pass Ultimate.
Elvite via Reddit
According to Elvite, on the equivalent of $7,300 there will be $1,752 in taxes, which he will have to pay in 2023. In addition, he could not transfer his profit to another person or take money instead of the subscription.
On top of that, Elvite calculated that the Game Pass subscription would only be worthwhile for him after 10 years, since he could buy 10 years of Xbox Game Pass with the money he would have to pay in taxes when claiming his winnings.
With the Microsoft Rewards you can also secure a month of Xbox Game Pass outside of a competition and you don’t have to pay any taxes on it either:
Xbox Game Pass “free”? You can extend your membership monthly for free