Why does a person from England get to claim the entire prize

Someone from England a few years ago won the 1 million dollars a year for life scratch off in NY. They did not have to pay any federal taxes and they get something like 960 thousand or so dollars a year tax free. Does anyone know why and what other countries can someone claim a lottery ticket from and not pay taxes and what website gives this type of information about a countries exemption from lottery winnings.

I forget the details, but there's a tax treaty between the US and the UK that  makes him exempt from US taxes.

do you know what other countries have tax exemptions from the usa

rgse,

"Someone from England a few years ago won the 1 million dollars a year for life scratch off in NY. They did not have to pay any federal taxes and they get something like 960 thousand or so dollars a year tax free."

1 millions dollars a year for life, tax free, and they get $960,000 a year. What happened to the other $40,000?

I'm not sure about winning in a foreign country, but the U.S. is one of the few countries that taxes gambling winnings. In England, Ireland, Canada and Australia whatever you win is all yours.

I know a few things. Google knows everything, if you really want to know and have time to kill. Most tax treaties are about reciprocity and people not having to pay twice as much tax just because there are two countries that have the authority to tax their income. IIRC, the treaty that made this guy so lucky is atypical, since in some cases somebody's income becomes exempt. I remember reading about it here, and I think it was  a NY lottery game.  A federal tax treaty with England wouldn't exempt him from state taxes, so that would be why he doesn't get the entire $1 million. As a rough approximation NY taxes would be close to $90k.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/archive/t-542582.html

he will have to pay about 69,000 dollars to nys taxes. this is the article about the man who won

Back in 2008, Keenan Altunis, 33, a wealthy banker living in London on a trip to New York gave his mum $100 to buy him tickets for a scratch-off game before leaving for the airport.

The married dad-of-one said: "I knew there wouldn't be time that weekend to buy tickets for myself, so I left enough money with my mother to buy three before leaving for the airport.

He won the top prize of $1M a year for life and because he lives in Britain he do not have to pay federal taxes on his winnings, only New York taxes, which means he will net $931,500 a year for the rest of his life.

Under a US treaty with Britain, income from lottery winnings and several other sources is not subject to taxation for British residents.

You can read all about it at:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1870660.ece

Sibling of Keenan Altunis also won a million dollars prize two years later in New York.

http://www.lotterypost.com/news/213581

wow that is all I can say is wow.

The bad news is the US is paying it in Mcdonald's gift cards.

YUM! YUM! I'll take my jackpot in fish & fries please.   

lol  fish and chips....

I read somewhere a while back that the average american eats fries 3 x a week.  Now I know who is eating my share. The only place that ever had good fries, decades ago, was Arby's. Little crinkly ones.

That was then, this is now. The top rate in NY is currently 8.97%., which would be $89,700 if that rate applied to the entire $1 million.