Topline<\/p>\n
A Mega Millions ticket sold in Georgia won the $980 million jackpot Friday, the eighth-largest since the game began in 2002, but the lucky winner faces a hefty tax bill. <\/p>\n
Lottery tickets for the Mega Millions lottery are purchased from a liquor store where winning tickets have been sold on December 27, 2024 in Hawthorne, California. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
The six winning tickets drawn Friday, purchased from a Publix in Newnan, were 1, 8, 11, 12, 57 and gold Mega Ball 7.<\/p>\n
The jackpot had been growing since the last winner, in Virginia, was awarded a $348 million prize in June.<\/p>\n
The winner can choose to receive the $980 million prize in 30 annual installments or a lump sum cash payout of $452.2 million in cash\u2014the preferred option for most winners. <\/p>\n
If the winner picks the cash prize, their winnings will first drop to around $343.7 million after a mandatory federal withholding of 24% is applied.<\/p>\n
The winner would likely face a federal marginal rate as high as 37%, depending on their taxable income, further reducing the winnings to around $284.9 million.<\/p>\n
If the installment route is chosen, the winner\u2019s annual payments of around $32.6 million would fall to $20.5 million annually based on the current 37% top federal income tax rate. <\/p>\n
Georgia taxes lottery winnings as ordinary income, and the state has a flat income tax rate of 5.19%, meaning the winner would also end up owing just under $23.5 million in taxes on the jackpot\u2019s lump sum.<\/p>\n
In all, if the winner takes the lump sum, they will likely end up taking home around $261.4 million after paying $190.8 million in taxes.<\/p>\n
Big Number <\/p>\n
1 in 290.5 million. Those were the odds of matching all six numbers. <\/p>\n
Read More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline A Mega Millions ticket sold in Georgia won the $980 million jackpot Friday, the eighth-largest since the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":381271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,13107,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-381270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-mega-millions","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115555153102512881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}