He should have just paid his state taxes. Why would he think he could get away with it?

I don't get it.  In WI if you win $600 or more in one winning ticket, you have to go to the lottery office to get it cashed. And if you do that they take out the taxes. (and they also run a trace on you first, takes a day, to see if you owe any unpaid child support or anything similar)

What the article isn't telling is how he accumulated that much without having to go to the lottery office to cash in the winners.

If you would win $100,000 but you won it on 200 separate tickets of $500 each (at least here in WI) you could take each ticket to a local retailer and they just cash it, no questions, no forms, no papertrail, you don't even have to sign the ticket. They ask for no ID on those small amounts.  There is no way then that the govt knows who cashes in those tickets. The amounts are too small for them to worry about tracking.

I really wonder how this guy managed this......

You're right Badger I forgot that they take taxes out of the check before giving it to you. So there must be more to this story then is being told.

You can't fix, stupid!

Here in MI, it is true for anything over $600, you are required to go to a lottery office to claim your prize...

BUT...

1. You get your check within 40 minutes (I know this because I had to claim a $2,500 prize about 140 miles from me since I didn't know how to get to the one in Detroit )

2. If you pass the records check (which takes about 5 minutes), you get your winnings, up to $5,000, paid to you in a check with NOTHING withheld - not even state taxes. The only time they take out taxes is if you win a prize of OVER $5,000.

3. Each winning ticket (in case of multiple winners) is processed SEPARATELY... that is, if you have 25 Daily 4 straight winners (each paying $5,000), you will have 25 SEPARATE checks for $5,000 each handed to you after about an hour of processing them. The downside to this is that you also have to fill out 25 DIFFERENT claim forms, 1 for each winning ticket.

4. The same low-tier policy applies for winners of less than $600 here... you could take them around, cash them all over the place, and not pay one cent in taxes. This is why I only play Daily 3.

It would be fairly simple to accumulate that much money and not pay a dime in taxes - at least for a while anyway.

While there is no income tax in WA state I wouldn't be foolish enough to try to stiff the IRS.

I hit $5K MM in NJ. Just filled out the form and mailed it. Three weeks later there was $5K check from the state. No tax holdout. NJ does start taxes until $5,001.00. About the same day, I received notification from the Fed IRS they were auditing my last five years of tax returns.

Maybe they should turn Homeland Security over to the IRS?

Another Richard Hatch -- LOL

Must be some heavy interest on $18K. Assuming it doesn't apply to one big win, that could be spread all over the place.

If you won $100k, and claimed it $500 at a time, wouldn't that be money laundering?

If you won $100k, and claimed it $500 at a time, wouldn't that be money laundering?

Well, if you lived in Austin, Texas, it wouldn't matter. Their legal system is overwhelmed with other more important matters right now.

I wonder what percentage of lottery players truly pay taxes on small wins (under $600). I don't think it's very high.

In Ky you can request that they take the taxes out otherwise the only other way I know of that they will take taxes is if you owe back taxes.

I rather have the taxes taken out of the check from the beginning.