Mega Millions lottery jackpot rolls to $146 million

Comment #29

spy153 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:51:59 GMT

Thank you RJOh! I don't think anyone who wins will be coming here to wine about the taxes. Maybe to tell Todd, so he can know. Some may even give a hollar out to LP members during a press conference. (Whoa! Talk about the traffic here then!) But taxes? Nah. Not me anyway.

Comment #28

Spare Change — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:43:21 GMT

I couldn't agree with you more, Mike. It is too bad Al Gore and Goerge Bush played the role of spoiler in in the 2000 election. Ralph Nader would have made a good president. A hell of a lot better than any of the Republicrats(Democrats and Republicans combined) anyway.

SC

Comment #27

time*treat — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:35:51 GMT

Ok, I haven't laughed like that all day...

Comment #26

RJOh — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:45:32 GMT

Hopefully, you or one of the other LP members will actually win a lottery jackpot one of these days and then we can have a real argument about paying lottery taxes rather then these fantasy arguments. Probably if it ever does happen, the last thing the winner will have their mind is coming to LP to argue about paying taxes.

Comment #25

MaddMike51 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:46:39 GMT

I actually don't mind paying taxes.I just don't like how my tax dollars are being spent...by either party

Comment #24

spy153 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:48:16 GMT

You guys are seriously arguing over the taxes? Who cares? I just want the jackpot., and big fat wahh if I got to pay taxes on it.

Comment #23

KY Floyd — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:57:52 GMT

It's not another 10%. It's the other 10%, which is different. You owe the taxes once you win, but for a big win they don't withhold as much as you're (almost certainly) going to owe. As pointed out elsewhere, if you win a jackpot you can expect to pay the highest tax rate on almost all of it. It's just a matter of when you pay it.

Comment #22

KY Floyd — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:53:02 GMT

It's not nearly as simple as your marginal tax rate. Bush obviously isn't a tax and spend democrat, but when it comes to financehe isn't a conservative ,either. His policyhas been to borrow and spend.

You may think you got a break because of Bush's tax cuts, but most people didn't, even if their tax bill went down a few bucks. In the 8 years Bush has been in office the national debt has increased by about 5 trillion dollars. That's an average of $2050 for every single person in the country fo... [ More ]

Comment #21

Piaceri — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:29:06 GMT

All those who trust the government, RAISE YOUR HANDS!!!

....chirp....

....chirp....

Guess that makes it unanimous..... AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON TO TAKE THE CASH AND RUN

Comment #20

Think — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:55:19 GMT

Your'e kidding right? You would really take it all and put it on red wouldn't you

Comment #19

Think — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:46:20 GMT

It isn't rocket surgery here. To ballpark the net you just take the current maximum fed rate (.35) the current maximum state rate (.0435 for Michigan...your state may not tax lottery winnings)

and the current maximum local rate if you have one (.01 in Michigan)

So, .35+.0435= .3935 +.01 = .4035

1-.3935 = .6065 (no local tax)

1-.4035 =.5965 (highest local tax)

98,800,000 * .6065 = 59,922,200

98,800,000 * .5965 =58,934,200

Under the current tax structure if you have no in... [ More ]

Comment #18

Lotto*Love — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:40:55 GMT

I feel the same way anymore. When I buy QP's I get repeats on the lines, mega ball included. Or I just get horrible numbers.....well.......not horrible, but I squirm when I see a line with say 36 and higher in white balls.

But, the repeat mega ball worked in my favor once. I think I paid about $3 for a qp where 2 of the 3 lines had a 5 for a mega ball. The mega ball that dropped that night was of course, a 5 plus I had one correct white ball on those lines so I walked away with like a $3... [ More ]

Comment #17

Steven948 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:47:19 GMT

the problem with the annuity is do you trust the government to give you 4 mill a year? because i dont.

Comment #16

Bagent — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:00:15 GMT

Heck, not really sure if buying a QP in Washington State is worth it anymore. I have bought QP tickets for the last 3 drawings and have had 2 tickets that have had matching Mega Balls. On 1 ticket of 5, I had 3 maga balls of 19 and 2 of 43 for the Friday draw of last week. Then I got another ticket and it had 2 MB for 44 and 2 of 16. In the years that I have been playing these games, I have never before gotten matching MB (or PB) numbers on a ticket before.

Comment #15

DC81 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:44:06 GMT

With $60M you should be able to easily manage to get a yearly return of 5% with safe, mostly low risk investments.. Not to mention if that 5% compounded every year or daily for 25 years could result in over 200M (that's obviously without factoring in the taxes). In the end you'd have made a lot more than what the annuity would offer at this point. Of course trusting people would be an issue but I think that could be resolved with making sure you remain involved and just not trusting them with th... [ More ]

Comment #14

Piaceri — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:32:43 GMT

jarasan, I keep thinking more and more like you. $60m is an intimidating amount of money. I think the stress of trying to manage without taking huge losses would just be too much for me. And could I trust someone else to manage it? That might be as much stress as the other.

With an annuity of $4m per year, you can live very comfortably and put money away for 26 years. At the end of 26 years, you still have quite a bit of money and you have lived well.

But then to come full circle, LOL, 2

Comment #13

jarasan — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:06:19 GMT

Just think how good it will feel to contribute $33M to help out the Feds bail more money. Yipppeeeeeeeee! Sometimes I think the annuity may be better just for the fact that you pay taxes in smaller payments and have some time to get used to having that much money. You may be able to learn, manage, and invest those annual payments over time to negate the massive lump tax payment . You can always sell the annuity if you change your mind.

I certainly could do just fine with $4M a year, invested

Comment #12

Piaceri — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:24:55 GMT

Actually, no, it's not wrong. Using the moneychimp tax calculator, take 98,800,000 less MI tax of 4.35% and you have a net fed taxable of $94,693,500 - plug your number in, assume single, 2008 calculator (2009 published tax brackets are pretty much the same), you get fed tax of $33,121,322, leaving you with a nice chunk of change at $61,572,178 - give or take. This doesn't take into account your personal deductions, but at $61m, that's chump change.

Don't forget that the USA Mega calculation... [ More ]

Comment #11

Steven948 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:05:03 GMT

Even if you win the lottery another 10 percent of taxes is still alot.

Comment #10

DC81 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:22:49 GMT

Your calculation is also wrong unless you're rounding up, taking off the initial 25% Federal and the 4.35% State income taxes you'd initially end up with $69,802,200 of the 98.8M cash option. However you'll likely owe another 10% at tax time which would make it $59,992,200 (taking the 10% from the jackpot amount before initial taxes) after those taxes unless you do a lot of work on deductions and exploring tax breaks with a really good tax attorney. With whom you would probably be able to reduce... [ More ]

Comment #9

Steven948 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:01:48 GMT

well, your calculation is wrong. Mine is right. 70 million after tax, thats pretty good. ill still give u a doller if i win and you dont youll be happy.

Comment #8

Piaceri — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:53:38 GMT

You can take it in 2008....or take your chances that in this recession Obama the Dems will hold off another year before doing the Robin Hood trick.

Comment #7

MaddMike51 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:46:17 GMT

Thats under the tax laws that are in effect now.After January 20th,the dems will be in a position to change the tax laws.Obama campaigned on redistributing the wealth.Translation:Steal from the rich and give to the poor.This clown actually thinks he's Robin Hood

Comment #6

Piaceri — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:38:56 GMT

Actually, that's after what they withhold, not what you will owe. It's just about guaranteed you are going to owe more. My calculation shows with max tax, living in Michigan, you are going to wind up with additional taxes of almost $8.4m, leaving you just a hair under $61.6m. With a good tax planner, it only gets better.

MaddMike, all the more reason to take the cash option.

Anyone bought tickets yet? Quick Picks for me, single tickets, multiple locations, and $15 to spend. Bought 3 today.... [ More ]

Comment #5

MaddMike51 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:38:21 GMT

After Obama his merry band of liberals get their hands on it the winner will be lucky to walk away with $50 million of it.

Comment #4

Steven948 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:29:22 GMT

after tax you will actually end up in the 70 million range. you're about 20 million short.

Comment #3

DC81 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:55:18 GMT

Of course not! Just saying how they're two rolls behind the previous JPs that have made it this far due to the bonds issue and I'm willing to bet the powers that be are holding it back too to let it drag out a little longer. I round it up to 100M because it's nicer sounding and could always make it to that amount if someone wins Friday when the sales are totaled. Would be about 60M after all is said and done with the likely taxes. I think I could live on that, let alone the potential interest an... [ More ]

Comment #2

MaddMike51 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:39:35 GMT

$99 million is nothing to sneeze at.After taxes its still going to be in the $50 million range.I could really help the economy out with that kind of money at my disposal

Comment #1

DC81 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:44:20 GMT

It might be the biggest JP in seven months but it's also 50M behind where it was last time after rolling over 12 times thanks to the weakness of the bond market. On the bright side, the cash option is only about a 20M difference between the last time (about 99M vs 119M) which certainly makes it look much more attractive.

Mega Millions lottery jackpot rolls to $146 million

Lottery Post — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:30:46 GMT

Lottery players in the twelve Mega Millions states will be buying tickets for the largest jackpot in seven months.

The jackpot in the multi-state Mega Millions lottery drawing was increased to $146 million.

The rollover occurred because none of the tickets sold for Tuesday night's $128 million drawing matched all five lotto numbers and the Mega Ball number. The next drawing will be Friday night.

There were 8 second-prize winners from Friday night's drawing: 1 from California, 1 from Geo... [ More ]