Can you say "idiot"?

[TitanTiger 21,238]

Powerball winner has more money stolen...$100,000 in a bag locked in his SUV! What kind of dope locks that kind of money in a car?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,108990,00.html

[stoic-one 1,588]

And, now that I have it, I'm gonna keep it in my car as well.....

[Guest AuNuma1]

Whittaker, a 56-year-old contractor, won a $314.9 million Powerball jackpot in December 2002 and collected his winnings in a $113 million lump sum.

He won $315 million but he only received $113 million? What happened to the other $200 million? Am I reading that right?

[stoic-one 1,588]

Nope, that is right, after taxes and penalties for the lump sum he gets way less than half...

Here are Floridas rules

http://www.interlotto.com/usa-fl653/faq.html

[TitanTiger 21,238]

They always give you two options. You can either take the entire amount, payable in yearly installments for the next 20 years or so, or you can take a smaller lump sum payment right now. Everyone seems to take the lump sum as it's still more money than they know what to do with and who knows whether the lotto will still be around in twenty years. Then there are the taxes.

[SouthLink02 8]

Whittaker, a 56-year-old contractor, won a $314.9 million Powerball jackpot in December 2002 and collected his winnings in a $113 million lump sum.

He won $315 million but he only received $113 million? What happened to the other $200 million? Am I reading that right?

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes

[Guest AuNuma1]

That's incredible...

[AUloggerhead 2,516]

Whittaker, a 56-year-old contractor, won a $314.9 million Powerball jackpot in December 2002 and collected his winnings in a $113 million lump sum.

He won $315 million but he only received $113 million? What happened to the other $200 million? Am I reading that right?

Man, you can't be mad at paying taxes when you win the lottery! That's just plain stupid. I KNOW I could easily live on a lump sum of $113 M!

This guy is quite the character. I read an article about him where he announced when he won the lottery he would be giving a good deal of it away to charities, needy people, etc. After about a year he had changed his tune and said if he had to do it again he'd be more private in his donations. He was inundated with sob stories & people contacting him with all manner of investment schemes.

[Guest AuNuma1]

Man, you can't be mad at paying taxes when you win the lottery! That's just plain stupid. I KNOW I could easily live on a lump sum of $113 M!

Sorry for being "stupid" but I just took a double-take when I read it. It's not everyday I read about someone winning $300 MILLION and end up "only" getting $100 MILLION.

[TrueBlue72 0]

ACTUALLY, it isn't all taxes. The lottery prize is stated as the sum of all the annuity payments over 20 years. If you choose the lump sum, you get the present value of those annuities, which is much less than the sum of the total annuities. The lotteries always state the sum of the annuity payments as a way of making the prize sound much larger than it really is.

[TitanTiger 21,238]

It was opting for the lump sum rather than the installments that made his take only $113 million, not taxes:

Whittaker, a 56-year-old contractor, won a $314.9 million Powerball jackpot  in December 2002 and collected his winnings in a $113 million lump sum.

This happens all the time in these lotteries. You can have a reduced amount payable in full immediately, or you can opt for getting the full amount paid out over 20-30 years. Most opt for the lump sum because wise investing would give you a return exceeding the amount you'd eventually get over time...plus you just never know what would happen if the lotto went bankrupt in 5-10 years. Would you get all the money you're entitled to that hasn't been paid out yet?

Anyway, the federal taxes on that amount will be 36%, leaving him with $72.3 million. The state of WV will take a cut too, probably something around 5% or more (we'll assume 5%), leaving him with $66.7 million. There might be some local or county taxes too, but it wouldn't be much more than likely.