Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: Lottery winnings

Imagine this, you just won the lottery for $10 million. In your opinion, how much of your $10 million should the government get? The more responses, the better...

They can take their half or so that they get, that's fine. I'm some lucky guy that just won the lottery, I still get 5 mil. Them taking the other 5 brings down the amount the rest of us have to chip in to the govt., since they are getting the money from somewhere regardless.

Imagine living in a country where lottery winnings are tax free!!!!!

On the Ohio Lottery web site, they show a calculator to estimate your winnings if you chose the lump sum, discounted cash option. It shows federal tax as 25% and state tax as 3.5%, for a total of 28.5%. However, they do say:

"Please note that the jackpot prize calculator will provide you with only an estimate of the annuity prize payment and cash option prize amount. The accuracy of this calculator is not guaranteed. The actual prize award amounts may vary. Therefore, please contact your nearest Ohio Lottery Office to obtain the actual prize award amounts."

But, I don't know if that refers to just the amounts awarded by the lottery, or if it refers to the tax rates also.

I know all this because the Ohio State Lottery is my only retirement plan.

I think the real problem is perception vs. reality. If the taxes were deducted before you were told the prize amount you would feel great about it, no matter what the amount was wouldn't you. If you were told a higher amount and only got 5% you would feel cheated even if you received $10,000,000.

Forgive me, but the more interesting question is, what sound system would you buy?

That's where I thought this was going.

But to answer the question, if you win the lottery, even if you only get 1 million out of the 10 mil jackpot, you're still $1 mil richer.

I say to all the people who feel they've ben robbed by the gov't: quit bitching and be happy you won. You still got free money.

good point......

..and for those in Canada, we don't get taxed until the winnings produce income (if memory serves - not that I have been lucky enough to win more than a few hundred here and there!!!).

Our last few lotteries have been in the $15-25 million range......not quite at the level of some of the US lotteries I hear about, but definitely that much money would dramatically change one's life/family forever.......

and sometimes the changes can be very negative.

The Lotteries are a nice tax scam on the poor (as are the mega slot machine jackpots). Half of the pool is immediately sucked off the top here in California - with 3% going to schools and 47% going to pay for the lottery administration. If the winner elects for the 20 annual payments most of the prize money is never actually awarded, only the interest it earns. If the winner elects for the lump sum, the jackpot is greatly reduced - and then heavily taxed.
I still play, but it's as big a scam as the Calif redemption value program on beverage containers!