Why the Wisconsin Powerball Winner Will Get Less Than the California Winner
Last week everyone had Powerball fever. Did you buy a ticket? It seems like most people did so it's not terribly surprising that two people won the big jackpot last week of $632.6 million. One of the winners is actually a resident of Wisconsin! But they're going to get less money than the other winner in California. Why?
The Wisconsin winner and the California winner will split the $632.6 million, which is the seventh-largest jackpot in history. So recently split down the middle that's $316.3 million per person. Each winner gets that amount if they chose to take the winnings in 30 payments. Or if they decide to go with the lump sum cash payout they'd get $225.1 million. But then you've got taxes.
NBC reports that "each state’s lottery automatically withholds 24% of that sum for federal taxes. In actuality, they will end up paying the top income tax rate of 37% come tax time."
That's already a massive ding on their winnings. I mean, they're getting millions of dollars but still. But then comes the reason why the Wisconsin winner will get less money than the California winner. That's because in Wisconsin there's an additional tax on lottery winnings that California does not have. Any lottery winner in Wisconsin has to pay "7.65% on payouts over $5,001" according to NBC.
In the end, if both winners choose the lump sum cash payout option the California winner would get $142.4 million after taxes and the Wisconsin winner will get $125.1 million. A difference of $17.3 million! That's a huge difference, but either way, both winners are very lucky people. There's such a slim chance of winning the lottery. There's a better chance of getting struck by lightning than winning the lottery!
Keep scrolling for the odds of these totally random events happening to you, like the odds of living to 100.
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