Mega Millions Makes History with $540 Million World Record Jackpot

reply to post by research100


I believe the tax rate is 37% on lotto winnings. Your taxes would be calculated on whether you opt for the 20 year annuity payments, or decide to take the lump-sum cash payment. It winds up that you pay more taxes with the annuity.

To each their own, I suppose.

Its now $640,000.000 ! Somebody is soon going to be wealthy or....DeAd !

Had to laugh at a guy working in a shop just now on Sky News, he said he'd take a short vacation them leave the country.

I guess i'd spend it on the usual things, not fussed about fancy cars though, something a bit more prctical that i can still throw plenty in the back of when i go to B & Q.

Would help so many people with that amount, but how do you decide? With that much money, i'd love to start a local scheme where i could hire trade professionals for a decent yearly wage to train youngsters for future work. Like free apprentiships.

I'd go out and buy a whole load of acoustic guitars and give them away free, i think every kid should have the chance to learn a few chords and see what it can lead to.

I'm lucky that i don't have what i would call "close friends". I have many people i get on well with but we don't hang out like some do. Therefore i wouldn't expect any begging letters from friends lol. However i have a few aqauintainces who i'd love to help out with thier business funding.

We have a fund in our village that was set up by a late resident, they left a couple of million and wanted it to be put in the bank and the interest used to give out vouchers every xmas to local elderly and also anyone that was known to be stuggling. About £40 each year is a nice help when you haven't got much or expect it. I'd like to set up something like that too.

What i wouldn't do is donate any to charity in the traditional sense. I know that sounds harsh but i'm fed up with hearing how much donated money never sees the people it's meant for. So if it was equipment needed, i'd physically buy the gear myself, take it there myself.

So many things to do eh?

CX.

reply to post by Druid42


Yeah, they said on the local news this morning that it was 11 pm EST.
I told my husband I would have to take a nap after work to make it to 11.

reply to post by chiefsmom


Ahha, good. Thanks for the confirmation of the drawing time. Everyone else can adjust their times accordingly.

I had a sadistic thought for a moment....don't ask why? The why is not important...If you've seen the second Batman( Dark Knight) remember the scene with the joker and all that money? How mad would society be if someone stacked all that green up and set it ablaze?

now over 640 million.

Originally posted by Druid42
reply to post by kdog1982

 

Well, that's tricky. You can give money to family, true, but you can't claim it as a charitable deduction on your taxes the next year, unless they are registered as a 301(c) non-profit. Since that is not likely, you can give them all the money you want, but THEY will have to report it as income on the next tax return, in which they are are responsible for taxes at about a 35% rate.

Honestly, since you would have paid taxes on your winnings, they should be exempt. You will pay taxes on your winnings, and if you give some to a family member, they will be taxed again.

Hmmm.

The US gift tax works like this:

You can give each individual (and as many individuals as you would like) $13,000 a year before you have to file anything with the IRS. That is called the annual exclusion.

Then you have what is called the lifetime exclusion or unified credit and you can gift up to 5.1 million before you owe a tax debt. You do have to file paper work with the IRS.

After that you owe 18-35% depending on how much you gave over your lifetime exclusion. The gift giver owes the tax debt not the person who received the gift --although there have been cases where the IRS has frozen the money until someone pays the debt.

You also can pay for someone's medical care or certain educational expenses without it counting towards either of your exclusions as long as you give the money directly to the institution and not the individual.

I agree that it seems unfair to have to pay anything since the money was already taxed once. I am also sure a good estate attorney could help you avoid some of the tax with some fancy legal footwork.

I wont be playing. Tptb are probably scamming the people with this. I'm not
contributing to some insider's bunker.

Originally posted by Teeky
I wont be playing. Tptb are probably scamming the people with this. I'm not
contributing to some insider's bunker.

impossible.

if i win they aren't going to like me very much because i WILL be solving water and food problems while spreading awareness that this earth can only hold so many people(whatever that number is).

Originally posted by danj3ris
I was bored earlier and did some random "strategery".

The way I look at gambling, you absolutely must have the mindset that you are willing to lose. Once you've come to grips with this and accept it, you're better off losing once and getting over it then losing continuously ( or at least I think so ).

So here's what you do. Find 9 people willing to lose 520 dollars right now. 520 dollars is how much you would pay to have 5 chances at each megamillions drawing throughout a single year, with two drawings a week at 52 weeks a year ( 1 dollar * 5 chances * 104 drawings = 520 ). When you add yourself you have 10 people willing to lose 520 dollars.

Choose your numbers via quickpick. Just make sure the megaball numbers are 10 different numbers. Everyone else does the same, and also makes sure they don't have a megaball anybody else has. Since there are only 46 choices for a megaball number, each number will be chosen as a megaball twice, with a random other 8 numbers being repeated a 3rd time. You can either have two ticket holders pick these random numbers, or you can have each of the other 8 repeat a megaball number they already have, leaving two ticket holders to play the missing number from each of the other 8 tickets on their tickets.

An easy way to set this up is give the 1st ticket holder megaballs 1-10. The 2nd ticket holder megaballs 11-20. The 3rd ticket holder megaballs 21-30. The 4th ticket holder megaballs 31-40. The 5th ticket holder megaballs 41-46, and then they can choose 4 random numbers as the other megaballs. Repeat this same pattern with the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th ticket holders. Just make sure the 10th ticket holder chooses a different 4 random numbers than the 5th ticket holder chose.

OK! EVERYONE PLAYS THE SAME NUMBERS EACH TIME. This guarantees at least winning 4 dollars because two people in the group will have the megaball! You split the 4 dollars among the 10 people after every drawing ( thats 40 cents each ). The worst case scenario is that over the entire course of the year none of your 10 players matches anything more than the megaball. This means everyone ends up with 40 cents every drawing, for 104 drawings, totaling 4160 cents, or $41.60 back! This means you originally spent $478.40 instead of $520 at the beginning of the year!

Any winnings beyond this you simply split evenly. And since I already did the math for coming up with this ridiculous scheme, you can figure out the applicable tax ramifications.

My head hurts.

I've discovered an error in my math.

This strategy relies on you spending 10 dollars on megaball tickets. If you spend that amount for each drawing over the course of a year, you are spending $1040. Spending $520 as I originally stated only gets you a guaranteed 20 cents back for each drawing, totaling over the course of one year to be $20.80 back to you guaranteed.

You end up with a combined 50 chances at each drawing. For the price of 5. That's nice.

Anyway, to heck with the paying up front thing, unless you feel you can benefit from the psychology of winning the lottery 52 times in a row.

10 people. 10 dollars each. You all get back a guaranteed 40 cents.

reply to post by SpartyRulez


Quit stealing my ideas.

Although honestly, that would be wonderful.

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


HAHA I made that joke earlier at work today. Hell I would be happy with the five numbers and the 250k. That would buy me ten tanks of gas.

It is now at 640 million, but I am willing to bet it doesn't stop there. There are already reports of police having to handle lines at lottery stations.

The east coast is just now letting out for rush hour. So who knows what the surge this evening will do.

Then you have the other three time zones.

I usually run pools at work and got accosted the other day to do the pool, so now I have to do the run myself.

May the best ATSer win.

reply to post by Druid42


We had this discussion. Apparently you heirs don't get the money if you die, so better to opt for the lump sum. But I may be wrong about being able to inherit it.

Not to mention that the same amount of money will have less value 20 years from now.

reply to post by nixie_nox


Best of luck to you too! Hopefully, a few of us will walk away with something.

I'll post posting back here to detail how much, if any, this fellow ATSer has won. Others should do the same.

Originally posted by Druid42
reply to post by Destinyone

 

I thought it was 11pm EST? Hmmm...

You are right....I am wrong....now, frame this, you won't hear that often.....

Des

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by Druid42

 

We had this discussion. Apparently you heirs don't get the money if you die, so better to opt for the lump sum. But I may be wrong about being able to inherit it.

Not to mention that the same amount of money will have less value 20 years from now.

The lottery's obligation to you does not end when you die. They are obligated to keep paying your estate or who you deem a beneficiary after your death.

There can be an issue with estate taxes. In the past the IRS has deemed that the estate tax bill comes due all at once, even before your heirs have collected all of the remaining payments. Since many people don't have that kind of money sitting around they can have problems. Many state lottery rules will allow the director to pay the remaining money due in a lump sum after the death of a winner so the heirs can pay the estate tax bill and have what is left of the winnings after that.

If you did decide to go for the 26 year payout most estate attorneys would recommend you claim the ticket with a trust if your state allows you to. That avoids a lot of issues because the trust will outlive you if it is done properly.

reply to post by angrywhitechick


Valuable advice, thank you. glad to hear it doesnt die with you.

My uncle ran into the estate tax problem. His father married an heiress to a very well known company. He got everything when she died, but still gave everything to her children save one mansion (of 8) to my uncle.

Well it had a hefty inheritance tax, and the children of the heiress were angry he got even that (he is just a contractor) and would trash the house so he couldnt sell it. So they were in the sit of having to come up with the tax before the house even sold.

It turned out be a pretty big white elephant and ended up doing more harm then good.

Well, there were three winning tickets, one each in Kansas, Illinois, and Maryland. Any ATS members in those three states better check your ticket(s).

That was fun, even without winning. Actually, I invested a total of 8 dollars, won 6 of it back due to hitting the megaball on two tickets, for a net loss of 2 dollars. Those tickets were in the work pool, so they'll get converted back into more tickets for the next lotto.

That's life.

Congrats to the winners, whoever they may be.