this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2024
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Such a joke. While I personally believe everyone should pay their fair share... Winning lotto or winning at the casino ect, should not be taxed.
However if you use that money and make more money with it you should be properly taxed.
I think if they only advertised the post-tax number, there wouldn't really be a problem. Like, "hey, the jackpot is some amount, and after tax you could win 400 million"—that would be fine. As it is, they're kinda just building resentment for taxes in general by making your final winnings seem so disappointing, even though it's still 400 million.
But the amount is also variable as it's not a lump sum..
If you take lump sum and not the 30 year annuity, you take about a 50% hair cut off the prize money alone.
Hmm...
I mean, they could advertise the 30-year annuity as a separate number, then. There are still ways to make this work. I'm just saying, not framing taxes as if they were a punishment would make the whole thing much less annoying.
Not taxing the winnings at all, or just taxing them before they get into the pot, might be the easiest solution, I guess. My only contention with that is, well, now we're just edging into the fact that I don't really like lotteries. Certainly not on this scale.