A LUCKY lottery player has won a whopping $758million only to realize she’d have to pay $144million back after breaking a relatively unknown rule.
The prized ticket was purchased by 53-year-old Mavis Wanczyk in Massachusetts in 2017, but after taxes, she will have around a fourth of her winnings taken away.
1
During the Powerball drawing, 10million more tickets won prizes worth more than $135million.
But Wanczyk had especially good fortune, matching all six numbers drawn.
The odds of winning were set at one in 292.2million.
BIG MISTAKE
Despite her huge earnings, lottery experts believe Wanczyk made a key mistake by coming forward and revealing her identity.
Read more about the lottery
Massachusetts state law requires all lottery winners to be made public.
However, past winners have been able to create a trust with a trustee to accept the winnings on their behalf.
The state also permits lottery winners to wait a full year before collecting their earnings.
By not protecting her identity, Wanczyck put herself in the spotlight, creating additional risks as tons of money-seekers will inevitably reach out, experts say.
“Her life will be much easier if she can hide behind someone else, so to speak, when she gets all these calls and questions,” attorney Jason Kurland of Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman told CNBC.
Wanczyck also saw less money in her account because of the payment method she chose.
By choosing the $480.5million lump sum cash amount, she’ll inevitably see far less than she would have had she chosen the 30 payments program over the span of 29 years.
And because of income taxes, the lucky lottery winner likely only got around $336million in her bank account.
That’s because around $120.1million is owed to the federal government, and $24million will go straight to the state of Massachusetts.
Financial experts recommend lottery winners quickly get a team of financial advisors together to help them protect their newfound wealth.
Estate planning is essential at this stage, as the money will need to be protected in case the lottery winner passes away.
“She’s now one of the world’s wealthiest people and she has to start acting like it,” Kurland said.
MORE LOTTERY WINNERS
It’s quite common for lottery winners to take home a significant portion less than their winning amount would indicate.
Edwin Castro, another lucky lottery player in California, won a whopping $2.04billion jackpot but only received $628million.
When he won in 2022, it was the largest Powerball win of all time.
However, the earnings were much smaller, as 24 percent of the jackpot went to the IRS, a tax expert told Forbes.
The cash total is about half of the prize, which would bring the total from $2.04billion to $997.6million.
Then, after deducting the 24 percent to send to the IRS, the total drops to $758.2million.
And because of tax bracket rules, Castro will owe another 13 percent this month upon filing taxes.
That brings the total down to just about $628.5 million.
California law exempts Powerball winnings from taxes, but otherwise, the earnings would have been even smaller.
Read More on The US Sun
Another lucky player won $483million but ended up only taking home a fraction of that due to unforeseen costs.
And one remorseful lottery winner only brought home $4million of a $450million prize and almost immediately wanted his old life back.
