Why do they tax your winning lottery?

Question

I mean come on just tell me the exact amount of prize money I will be winning instead of saying I won $1 million and they take off like $300,000 for taxes. That pisses me off!

Answer 1

because the IRS is greedy

Answer 2

Because everything is taxed, its considered like income.

Answer 3

It's income and we have to pay tax on income...

Answer 4

buddy...there are 3 universal truths in life:

1) you are alive

2) you will die

3) taxes

period...always, forever, get used to it...the government is "lol"ing that you even asked...

Answer 5

you don't pay tax on the winnings, there tax is taken off of everyone in the stake. Say you pay a dollar, you're really paying about 80c to the lottery and 20c to the government. you will have to pay tax on any interest you get from the win, which would be about $250 a day!

Answer 6

it's income, isn't it?  of course it should be taxable.

btw, that amount is what they withhold for taxes.  you don't know what the tax obligation is unless you figure it out.  it may be more than 30% if you are already in a high bracket.

Answer 7

the state taxes your winnings so they can make a profit it is all a scam and everything the state no what they are doing and to me they are cheating people out of their money

Answer 8

Actually it's taxed as "Capitol Gains" which means they take about half.... closer to $500,000. Yes it sucks. It's considered income, so the government takes there share. Total BS.

Answer 9

Try earning money, paying taxes on it and then try giving it away to relatives. It's taxed again at an even higher rate! You name it, they tax it. Sometimes twice.

Answer 10

Same thing with game shows. They say "win a million", but gift tax takes like 40% of it. They do because they can. Blame the lottery, they should make the jackpot $1,400,000, so you get a million

Answer 11

They tax your winnings because one of the agreements the national lottery association has is the profits made from the lottery will be used for federal and state programs, this is to guarentee the profits are used in accordance.  The program itself gets taxed but at the minimum level so the prize profits are at the maximum.  For every winning, the lotto association itself takes 50% of the winnings, that will ensure a stable balance for the next lotto drawing.  The federal tax takes 15% of your winnings which goes to programs that were established for the start of the lottery.  The state tax takes 2% of your winnings and applies it to prior programs.  One should really not be pissed off, this is free money.  If one did win, they should be happy not pissed.

Good luck

Answer 12

taxes suck, but we need taxes  to pay for the social services, education and healthcare of 14 million illegal aliens.