Hi all
Been long time lurker but newly registered poster. I vowed I was going to allow this topic to die it's natural death, as it provoked a round of phone calls and research on my part that had me off purchasing lottery tickets (but only for a week--LOL)
What my research indicated was that the lottery winner that I had admired most--that guy that won the big Powerball--probably had it all wrong. He was the one who had actually won the big banana and vowed that he was going to turn it into a billion. After much discussion with my brother--an accountant AND an attorney and his daughter#1 who works for the Justice Dept in prosecuting attorneys in Trusts/Finances Division for unethical behavior. Then talking w/ Daughter #2 who is in final stretch for finishing her law degree and who is working in an Estate Planner Attorney's office this summer. . .I have learned some dismaying things. Tonight's MegaMillions JP is $77 mil--Cash of $44.4 mil--but because the lunp sum tax amount withheld from cash distribution is UNDERWITHHELD--most of us need to take off another 10% to approximate an accurate take home figure--unless many of us are preparing to set up a charitable trust and fund it immediately with a LARGE hunk of our cash winnings. And we can only pass $2 mil (if we'RE a married couple--$1 mil if single) per heir along and only to our immediate offspring. If we want to pass more than that along--the Estate Tax is approximately 46%. And if we want to skip our kids and pass to our grandkids==they have to pay the Estate Tax times 2 generations. There are other permutations on this depending on the type of trust instrument you establish--which is why it is so important to have really good advice and everything in place BEFORE cashing your ticket.
My brother asked me what I intended to do with the hypothetical winnings--I told him share with my family--my kid, and her daughter, my SigOth's 2 kids, my brother and 2 nieces, my elderly parents and my Sig Oth's sisters and a small stipend to my best friend. So he suggested that I set up a partnership (I don't think this is the Flip Trust) on the tkt so that those that I wanted to have receive money received it before I died (I'm 60 and do not enjoy my parents' good health) as part of the partnership. I would be able to enjoy the people I love enjoying THEIR money and would substantially reduce taxes.
I of course would keep eough money to live off the interest, fix up my house (I have rented apts in my parents' business to people coming out of jails and prisons and I know that if they knew I had won a large sum of money, I would spend the remainder of my life trying to pay off family members' ransoms--I know all I wish to know of those types and unfortunately I would never be able to adequately protect the family that lives locally==so living "low off the hog" would be the only way to go--at least until my parents' pass and I can move.. A few weeks ago many of you suggested on a similar topic that you spread the word that you had a small inheritance or someting of the kind to account for having money--another idea that I thought was really good.
As RJOh knows , we are blessed to live in a state that allows anonymity for the winners, and most of the people I would share this wealth with live out of the area though many are less than a 3 hour drive away.
I'm so sorry--I did not intend to make my 1st post so long, but this is related to the topic that has been consuming me since I first found LP, and that is: once initial taxes have been paid, how do I conserve the remainder?
Anyway I feel as though I know so many of you and well. . .just sit down and shut up Aunt Pat. . .Thanks and good luck to all of you tonight who live in MM states--if I can't be the winner--I would surely love for one of you to be.