Largest lottery prize in Canadian history hits $70M markPrevious TopicNext Topic

No, Americans are free to win whatever lottery games they wish.  The issues are:

• The government's opinion is that it's illegal to do it over the Internet.
• There are more Internet scams than legitimate official sites.  And the scams can be extremely convincing and professional-looking.  So, if you find a site that offers lotteries online, the chances are pretty good that it's a scam.
• You can't hide your income from the government (if you want to live here).  These days I'm not even sure about money you win offshore and keep offshore (never bringing any of it into the USA).  They seem to want to tax that too.  (If you think this concept is really bad, then vote the people who increase taxes out of office.  Even people who claim only to "tax the rich".)
• If you want to play a Canadian game (for example), traveling to Canada and buying a ticket in a store is the best way.  Anything else is risky.

i get my lotto tickets with option 4. i never say i go to canada for just a lotto ticket. i always claim going for dinner.

Honesty is the best policy starry. Nobody likes a liar.

You shouldn't be lying to the Border Patrol. That's illegal.

Always tell the truth. You'll like yourself better.

And other people will too once you stop lying all the time.

I disagree, rdgrnr's EXTRA clarification was helpful to my understanding! 

Also, if you are an U.S.A. Citizen and you win a lottery jackpot from another country, you will probably have to pay county, state, and federal taxes to U.S.A. AND the other country (however, many other countries have no lottery win annuities and taxes)!

No one won the 50 million, now its 50 million and 45 more draws of a million,!!!

Most countries have reciprocal agreements with the USA, so that's probably not the case.  Canada has some of the closest financial ties of any country to the USA.

I think you would basically end up paying a total of the highest amount of taxes charged by either country.  You would pay whatever you owe in Canada first, since that's the source of funds, and you'd pay the balance owed to the USA.

So let's say Canada made you pay $1 million in taxes.  (I'm not sure if there's any taxes to pay in Canada, but just say $1 million for argument's sake.)

When you bring the money into the USA, between Federal and State taxes -- just based on the prize amounts alone -- your total tax bill would be $3 million.

Your total tax bill to both Canada and the USA would be $3 million -- the $1 million paid to Canada, plus $2 million to the USA (you get credit for the $1 million paid to Canada).

Lottery prizes in Canada are completely tax-free within Canada; so if you are from the US or another country, you'd only be on the hook for the portion that your government would take.

spent 15$ won 20$.

thanks. i will go to the site and read up some more stuff on lotto max. i see no one hit again.

can't wait until friday. i have six entries in this weeks drawing. i have 2 overlapping multi drawing tickets. i need to check the bc site to see if there are any bc winners.