Fortnite World Cup winner Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf might have just netted himself $3 million dollars thanks to his incredible battle royale skills, but how much will be truly take home?
While fans may have expected big names like Turner ‘Tfue’ Tenney and Anthony ‘Bizzle’ Miller to duke it out for the Fortnite World Cup solos win, it was Sentinel’s star Bugha who stepped up.
The 16-year-old dazzled on-lookers and fellow competitors with his skills as he racked up 59 points from the six games – taking the lead from the first match and never looking back. While much has been made about the cash dished out by Epic Games for the event, the harsh reality of tax means that his parents won’t be depositing a $3 million cheque into a bank or savings account for him any time soon.
Prize winnings in New York fall under their own tax that currently sits at 8.82% – meaning that Bugha owes the state around $264,600 just for competing and winning. The state is in for a windfall too, considering they’ll take money from everyone involved.
However, it doesn’t end there for Bugha. Ryan from RushB Media calculated that the 16-year-old, despite his young age, also has to stump up the cash to pay the 39.4% amount of the US’ top tax bracket. From his $3 million winners paycheque, that total comes out to an eye-watering $1,182,000 million.
In total, the battle royale star would have to deduct $1,446,600 from his total earning, leaving him with a touch over $1,500,000 to do with as he pleases.
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So for @bugha, in winning $3m, he actually owes the Federal Governent $1.2m and the state of New York $265,000, approximately.
His final take home should be somewhere around $1.5m.
— Ryan (@RyanAtRBM) July 29, 2019
Of course, considering he’s 16, it’s unlikely that he goes around and splashes out on a brand new car or heads to his local nightclub.
In fact, despite his media tour – where he even appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon – Bugha has not revealed what he is eyeing up with his winnings.
Regardless of that first big purchase, it’s probably not the best idea to be thinking about the huge number of in-game cosmetics. There are plenty of better things to buy than those.