Tesla Referral Program

[SackAttack]

Anyone get a response back for not picking the rims even though we have 5 referrals?

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

Anyone get a response back for not picking the rims even though we have 5 referrals?

No response. Really odd.

 

[Buddy]

Referral | Tesla

Someone used my referral from posting on this site. Thank you mystery person!

 

[Afdyce]

A word of caution. I own an S and have a deposit down for a 3. I just ordered an X for my wife and was unable to use the referral code from my 3 order to get the discount on X.

 

[f-stop]

any thoughts on the "New" leather bag vs the Moab bag? anyone seen these in person?

 

[FlatSix911]

any thoughts on the "New" leather bag vs the Moab bag? anyone seen these in person?

My take ... New leather bag for me, or matching Moab bag for my wife. Tough choice

 

[ChadS]

My take ... New leather bag for me, or matching Moab bag for my wife. Tough choice

Ha. Yeah, I was told very clearly that we are getting the matching Moab bag, and it's hers.

At least she let me have the first jacket. (If we get a second one in the future, she has the same first initial so the embroidery will not be a problem for us).

 

[GasKilla]

Turns out when we entered the GF party, they basically just asked "how many?" and handed us badges. No ID checks. I think they were just trying to get people inside because the line was really long. I suppose at the start when there were less people they may have been checking their records and IDs (like at the M3 reveal, they were very tight on that), but at the GF I don't think that lasted very long and they didn't plan for the in-rush of people at the starting hour.

I think I was on the first bus that got to the party and I was asked for any ID with my name on it, sounds like they got a little lax as the line built up

 

[GasKilla]

The real question is who got the email saying they won a P90D MX ludicrous version. I looked on the website and didn't see anything for past or present contest winners.

 

[SackAttack]

The real question is who got the email saying they won a P90D MX ludicrous version. I looked on the website and didn't see anything for past or present contest winners.

Don't worry about it. It's gonna be mine

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

I hate to break this to you, but if you haven't heard about the X, then you're not it.

 

[jaipurking]

I think the link for person who won the Model X would have the option to configure their Model X at the end of all the other rewards they won.
That would be so 'Tesla'

Unfortunately that was not me

 

[Thorsten]

Has anyone in Europe already received the email with the rewards for the last referral program?

 

[danni]

If what people have posted is true, then you get a second set of wheels at 5 referrals. 10 referrals gets you an invite to their "next" reveal/announcement party.

I have asked Tesla directly and they have confirmed: This new round is a completely new referral program with new prizes. You start from zero and you can win bag, jacket and rims even if you’ve already won them all.

any thoughts on the "New" leather bag vs the Moab bag? anyone seen these in person?

I think the Moab looks nicer. I figure that I’ll get the new one in the new program anyway so I’m choosing the Moab now.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I think the Moab looks nicer. I figure that I’ll get the new one in the new program anyway so I’m choosing the Moab now.

One thing I didn't like about the Moab bag (at least from what I saw in pictures) was that the handles weren't always the same color as the bag. For some reason, the grey bag had tan handles.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I have asked Tesla directly and they have confirmed: This new round is a completely new referral program with new prizes. You start from zero and you can win bag, jacket and rims even if you’ve already won them all.

Thanks. They really must have a stockpile of these rims to liquidate! Let's hope they assign liquidate prices to the 1099s they send out.

 

[Mr So Chill]

If anyone wants to use my referral... feel free. I have gotten zero so far. Baby needs some new shoes. Referral | Tesla

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

Thanks. They really must have a stockpile of these rims to liquidate! Let's hope they assign liquidate prices to the 1099s they send out.

I'm not an accountant, neither do I play one on TV, all the below is total BS, read at your own risk.

This is a complex situation. First, you'd have to determine whether this is a gift, a prize, or earnings. The wheels can be argued either way.

A prize - you're screwed, you have to pay tax. (1099-MISC)
Earnings - you are taxed based on your tax bracket which I suspect is 39.6 for many of us plus state tax.
A gift - the donor is responsible for paying tax, which I doubt Tesla wants.

Tesla is not required to issue you a 1099 if the gift/earning/reward is < $600 per head per year. But, the recipient is still required to report it and pay tax on it. Of course, Tesla can choose to issue the 1099 for even < $600 (wasting tesla $) and not issue one for > $600 (taking a risk). In cases of prizes, Tesla may have to be required to do tax withholding. I doubt Tesla wants to get into this nonsense, employers and HR departments do that.

All of this can be solved in 2 ways,
#1. Everyone pays tax and sucks it up. or
#2. Tesla says, the wheels are exclusive, not for purchase, and their cash value is $0.01 per wheel. .. and then you owe almost no tax and we are all good. This is what most companies do, say when they issue you a coupon (fine print, cash value 0.000001cent).

Now, since Tesla isn't selling them anymore, there is a good chance they'll go for option #2. But like much else when it comes to laws and accounting, it all boils down to interpretation, enforcement, the mood of the auditor and the judge, and balancing risk. Someone could argue that the wheels should be worth more than one cent, but Tesla could argue that the wheels are exclusive to Tesla and Tesla has the sole authority in determining the price - I suspect Tesla will win that argument, in the US at least. But will Tesla have the will to do that?

So like many other things in life, Tesla has to balance the dissatisfaction of asking you to pay tax on your winnings, or, take on the risk of some govt. suit crawling up their a55. I can tell you, for larger amounts to one individual and for products being sold in the open market, like the Model X winner, it makes complete sense to have the individual pay tax. Enforcing that is easy, defending that is hard, so that lucky winner has a tax bill ahead of him/her for sure. Wheels is a different matter. I don't know what Tesla's decision will be since I don't have all the data on hand of course.

Also, European countries are tax bitches. So the situation in exporting this prize to a european location is exponentially more complicated, and country specific. Even if it is sourced locally from within the country, it's still very country specific. I'll leave that for another day.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

On a different note, I did get 5 referrals, but I was not asked for wheels in the survey. If it comes to paying tax on 7600, I will most likely let go the wheels. The thing is, 21" wheels over the lifetime of the car will end up costing me $10-$15K more (average, including blowouts etc.), .. they look nice but not that nice, and in all other ways besides looks are inferior to the 19" wheels. And lets say I don't put them on my car and sell them, I'll recover some money, but not much more than my tax bill, and certainly not worth my time (and risk of not being able to get a good price for them). For that little, let the next guy/gal have them.

 

[HankLloydRight]

First, you'd have to determine whether this is a gift, a prize, or earnings. The wheels can be argued either way.

A prize - you're screwed, you have to pay tax. (1099-MISC)
Earnings - you are taxed based on your tax bracket which I suspect is 39.6 for many of us plus state tax.
.

I'm no accountant either, but have done A LOT of taxes. These are both the same.. it doesn't matter if the award is a "prize" or "earnings" 1099-misc income is taxed the same way as earnings in your tax bracket.

A gift - the donor is responsible for paying tax, which I doubt Tesla wants.

In terms of a gift, there are specific gift-tax laws with regards to gifts between people, but corporate gifts like this in general are not the tax burden of the giver unless the giver chooses to "gross-up" the prize to cover the taxes. I believe corporate gifts are limited to $25 tax free.