You can now purchase a few glorious hours of fantasizing about how you would spend those unearned funds without leaving your couch.
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Last November a Dallas man became an overnight millionaire by way of the lottery. Unlikely, highly, but it happens. We aren’t sure who the man is because he wisely chose to remain anonymous, however we know where he bought his ticket: he purchased it online through theLotter Texas app.
That’s right, you can now toss away a few bucks in return for a few glorious hours of fantasizing about how you would spend those unearned funds without leaving your couch.
“I work late, so it’s easier to do it online,” the winner reportedly said (according to a press release from the company TheLotter).
Since launching in 2020, theLotter Texas says it’s sold tickets to lottery winners around the state.
In 2022, a Houston resident won $50,000, a farmer from Seguin won $25,000 in a Cash Five jackpot. and someone from Cedar Park won $10,000 from the same source.
(Up in Plano someone just claimed a mil from a July drawing.)
If you do win (hi, best friend!) Texas ranks among the top eight states for winners due to an absence of certain taxes on winnings.
If you live in Texas, you will take home the maximum payout. For example if you win the current $1.1 billion Mega Millions jackpot — the third largest in the lottery’s 27-year history and the fifth-largest ever in the U.S., you’ll take either $363,421,045 as a cash lump sum or a 30-year annuity totaling $694,111,350, according to usamega.com.
Winnings can vary by as much as $120 million due to state taxes. The cash payout is nearly $63 million more in tax-free states than in New York, the most-taxed state. For the annuity, the difference is nearly $120 million. If you buy a winning ticket outside your state or district, you will be subjected to state taxes for the state in which the ticket is purchased.
CNBC’s finance writers sum it up, “federal taxes are the same for everyone: 24% upfront on all winnings, although the total tax bill will almost certainly be 37% when you actually file. That’s because winning more than $578,125 as a single filer or $693,750 married filing jointly would trigger the top tax rate for 2023.”
