From the Powerball website:
WHY HAS THE CASH JACKPOT GONE DOWN?
Actually, it is the annuity jackpot that has gone UP. Most people assume that we start with the annuity, but we really start with the cash jackpot. In the Powerball game, thirty cents of every dollar sold goes into the cash jackpot pool. The difference between the cash jackpot and the annuity jackpot depends on how much we can make in interest earnings. The more interest that we can make, the higher the annuity jackpot - and the lower the cash percentage. In times of high interest rates, the annuity prize will go UP and the difference between the two jackpot amounts will increase. It is not that we have reduced the cash; but only that we have been able to increase the annuity prize. All of the cash jackpot and the interest earned is paid to the winner for the annuity.
Rising interest rates increase the annuity jackpot (reduces the cash percentage), but a change in the payment method of the Powerball annuity prize is the big reason for the increased interest earnings to build the annuity prize. The annuity is now paid out as a graduated annuity. Each payment is 4% higher than the previous year's payment to help keep up with inflation. The annuity prize used to be paid out in equal payments. Persons who elect to take the annuity prize do so because they don’t want to worry about investing the money. They want to maintain their lifestyle for the term of the annuity. In fact, our past practice of equal installments did not really meet the needs of these winners. Going from an income of say, $50,000 a year to say, $1 million per year, sounds great (and I hear that it is), but ten years later, the winner’s income is still $1 million a year and the price of luxury cars and yachts has gone up. In twenty years, the fact that the winner is living on a “fixed income” really starts to sink in. If you took the same cash jackpot amount to a professional financial advisor, they would certainly recommend investing in a graduated annuity so that your “real” income would stay at the same level every year. The Powerball annuity jackpot now does that.
IS THE CASH AMOUNT THE JACKPOT AMOUNT AFTER TAXES?
No. When we advertise a prize of $100 million paid over 29 years (30 payments), we actually have less than $50 million in cash. When someone wins the jackpot and wants cash, we give them all of the cash in the jackpot prize pool. If the winner wants the annuity, we invest the $50 million in cash to fund the annuity payments. The winner gets the cash plus the interest earned. When you see an estimated jackpot annuity prize, we are estimating both sales and what the market's prices on certain securities will be. The annuity jackpot amount and the cash jackpot amount that we announce are always estimates until sales are final and, for the annuity jackpot, until we take bids on the purchase of securities.
Federal and State Income tax apply to whatever income you actually receive in a given tax year, whether it is wages or lottery prizes. If you take the cash amount (say $50 million), then you pay income tax on $50 million). If you take the annuity (say $100 million), then you pay income tax on the money you actually receive each year. Just like your wages, a withholding amount is required to be taken out immediately. The lottery will send you a W2-G form and you figure your actual tax at tax time.