Lotto Winnings (Power Ball)?

Question

I saw in a news report today about how a group of women won the power ball. The report also stated the the state of West Virginia also won in the form of taxes since that was the state the women lived in. The report states that each person won about 12 million after taxes (about 17 million before taxes). That’s about 5 million in taxes each; in the form of income tax.

My question is; couldn’t the winners opt to pay the tax on the winnings ant the end of the tax season after they file their taxes for 2008? The interest in just the 5 million that was taken for taxes would pay for its self. And the winners would continue to benefit from the money other than just handing it over to the government.

Answer 1

<<<couldn’t the winners opt to pay the tax on the winnings ant the end of the tax season after they file their taxes for 2008?>>>

Laws vary between states, so I do not know about West Virginia, but the majority of that $5 million went to the Federal Government and they will not allow you to wait until the end of the year to pay.