Microsoft reaches limit on Vista, Office giveaway

By Hurmoth
in Back Page News

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Jeremy1

Posted
Posted
If you really cared you would have got it working. I worked my butt off reloading, refreshing, and dealing with time outs to get it working because it was important to me.

Exactly. It was a pain in the ass, but it was well worth the work considering I'm now getting a free copy of Office. It'll go along very nicely with my free copy of Vista I got for being a beta tester. Microsoft has sent me so much free software over the years, it's amazing. Off the top of my head, I've gotten two copies of Office 2003 (Small Business and Pro) and Visual Studio 2005 Standard, plus Vista and Office 2007. The combined retail value of all of this software is probably around $2000, and I haven't paid a penny for it. And people wonder why I love Microsoft! :D

Collaborator

RDx

Posted
Posted

I sing up before the soldout banner, and I just completed my 3rd webcast. Would i still get it?

NVM

"Already Registered? If you have already registered for the Office Campaign, selected a gift and are eligible to receive the free gift, please continue to watch your webcasts and vlabs to complete the requirements for your free copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007."

Grand Master

Southern Patriot

Posted
Posted

I was going to sign up for this to get Office 2007. I don't want to nor am I ready to be filling out tax forms so I guess it's a good thing that I didn't.

I guess it's your loss then, because if you were only going to get Office, then you wouldn't have had to fill out any tax forms. That was ONLY required if you got both offers. And as I posted before, the form is pretty simple, something that you could easily fill out in 2 minutes, or less.

Here's what one looks like: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf

Name, address, SSN, signature and date. Not too complicated.

Community Regular

CrimsonKnight13

Posted
Posted

I'm totally up for getting both of them now that I've totally completed the requirements and learned that the Tax deal is still a fine one indeed. Let the free software hit my mailbox and on to my computer!

Thanks for the glimmers of wisdom simmered by truth, roadwarrior.

Grand Master

jwjw1

Posted
Posted

First off, for most people, their Tax ID number IS their SSN, and that is all that you will need to supply on the W-9. The W-9 is only a the standard form used when a business needs your SSN for tax purposes (such as when you are recieving a large sum of money from them, or other valuable items). This is the same form you would fill out if you won a large prize on a radio station contest. Businesses use this form to get your SSN so they can report to the IRS that they transferred x amount of money or other compensation to you. The IRS will then expect you to report this as gift income on your taxes, as I explained earlier.

Want to see what it looks like? Here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf

Pretty simple and straight forward.

Which would be "6-8 weeks" from now, just as stated on the offer. It would possibly be a couple of weeks sooner, since it says 6-8 weeks from RTM, which was last month.

If you signed up before the "sold out" banners went up, and met the requirements (US citizen, over 18, not employed by a Microsoft partner or MSDN subscriber or one yourself, and watched the required number of webcasts), then you will recieve the gifts. Where do you get this idea that you won't?

I agree with your positive attitude....and I hope they do ship to everyone that has qualified..but nothing is a guaranteed...just like the MS Flash Drives that qualifed people never 'got'...all one can do is wait the 6-8 weeks.

Grand Master

Mouldy Punk

Posted
Posted

Did you also forget that different countries have different laws on contests and freebies? Sigh :rolleyes:.

Competitions/contests/whatever-you-want-to-call-them are perfectly legal in the UK, and I'm pretty sure they're legal in most European countries too.

maybe the fact that Microsoft is based in the US has something to do with it?? pinch.gif whistle.gif

Maybe the fact that sales in Europe make up a significant part* of MS's profits should have convinced them to look into promoting Vista outside the US.

*Backed up by Microsoft meeting the demands of the EU - if they didn't care at all about Europe then they wouldn't bother.

Rookie

captaincaveman

Posted
Posted

Just so eveyone knows...

That link to the IRS talking about $1200 buffer, is in regards to gift GIVERS... NOT receivers.

I do not know the actual rules on received gifts and taxations, but that link does not pertain to you/us in this situation.

-B

Neowinian

MrWilliamWallace

Posted
Posted

Just so eveyone knows...

That link to the IRS talking about $1200 buffer, is in regards to gift GIVERS... NOT receivers.

I do not know the actual rules on received gifts and taxations, but that link does not pertain to you/us in this situation.

-B

Your right, I talked to my accountant and she said it should counted as income, depending on your tax bracket you would be liable for anywhere from $80-200. Its like winning the lottery, in Mass you pay income tax on lottery winnings over $550 last i checked. Still better than paying full retail...

Has anyone received a link to fill out a W-9 or does that come when they are ready to ship?

Grand Master

Southern Patriot

Posted
Posted

Just so eveyone knows...

That link to the IRS talking about $1200 buffer, is in regards to gift GIVERS... NOT receivers.

I do not know the actual rules on received gifts and taxations, but that link does not pertain to you/us in this situation.

-B

Yes, but there are other parts on that page that talk about recieving as well, and there are similar limits in place. And you missed it by a factor of 10, it's $12,000 not $1200. Either way, the income taxes on this (if by some chance you do have to pay them) will be minimal compared to the value of what you are getting.

Collaborator

Hexicon

Posted
Posted (edited)

I was able to get through the Vista portion, but wasn't interested in Office since it isn't used by me at home nor at work. I never got an email stating that I finished but after I viewed the requisite 3 webcasts the website congratulated me and after verification will be sending me my copy of Vista Business. Did everyone actually recieve an email or just view the webpage for verification? I assume (but you know what happens when you do that) that I will be happy when I get my copy in the mail. If not, no loss but a wasted few hours (I did actually learn some stuff about XML and gadgets).

Edited by Hexicon
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