New efforts!

[Joshex]

I believe the federal government taxes lottery winnings essentially as normal income.  So the federal marginal tax rates in 2015 (for single filing) are 10% for taxable income up to $9,225, 15% for taxable income from $9,225 to $37,450, 25% for income from $37,450 to $90,750, 28% for income from $90.750 to $189,300, 33% up to $411,500, 35% to $413,200, and 39.6% for all taxable income above $413,200.  For something like a $300 million jackpot, a reasonable estimate of the taxes is 39.6% because the difference is pretty small relatively speaking.  But there's no special tax rate for lottery winnings.

The total taxes on the first $413,200 is $120,031.25, or about 29% of the total.  The total tax on exactly $300 million of taxable would be $118,756,404.05, or about 39.59% of the total.  So, basically the top rate of 39.6%.  Theoretically speaking, the lottery winner would have potential tax deductions, but they would also likely have normal income.  Overall, its likely to still be pretty close to 39.6%.

it depends on your state tax as well as federal. but actually lottery winnings need to be claimed as such on your annual taxes, and the rules there have a whole different rate table (it is really much higher). it's common to get rates around 40 to 60%, you may scoff and be like "who the F would pay 60%?" the guy or gal who won, that's who, it's mandatory.

also on the topic, don't play the lotto, it's semi-rigged, they have a supercomputer that crunches numbers to issue ticket numbers that have the least chance of winning and output carefully cross compared numbers into groups for staff to select those ball numbers and put them in tanks together, there's a lot of physics calcs as well as sequence calcs that go into it to predict as close to the most non-winning number as possible. really, it's why they don't put numbers 1 through 70 in each ball bin, it's all carefully planned.

the way around it is to put in custom numbers, but by doing so you register them into the system and the supercomputer gets to crunch them. the best way is to put in custom numbers as close to the cut-off time as possible, but those sneaky dastards give the super computer number cruncher a frick'in 2 hour buffer to run last second entries through!!!

[Arcana]

it depends on your state tax as well as federal. but actually lottery winnings need to be claimed as such on your annual taxes, and the rules there have a whole different rate table (it is really much higher). it's common to get rates around 40 to 60%, you may scoff and be like "who the F would pay 60%?" the guy or gal who won, that's who, it's mandatory.

The federal government doesn't have a special tax table for lottery winnings.  This year, if you don't already, actually file your own federal income tax form (assuming you live somewhere in the United States).  The book you're provided with explains how to handle this.  When you win a large enough lottery or gambling jackpot you'll be given a W2G for winnings subject to withholding (frequent travelers to Las Vegas might recognize this as that form you get when you hit that jackpot over $1199 or whatever the limit is now), and you yourself list lottery winnings on your 1040 as "other income."  Some states tax lottery winners and others don't (for that matter some have income tax and some don't).  State taxes range fro about 4% to about 11%, so the maximum tax rate you'd pay is about 50ish.  Actually, because I believe federal taxes are deductible for state taxes, if we're talking about the maximum tax rate, that's going to be 39.6% federal tax, and (I believe) 10.8% state tax in New Jersey so the net overall effective tax rate (highest bracket) is going to be about 45.5%**.  You keep about 54.6% of the pot, for lottery winnings sufficiently high that the taxes paid are approximately the highest bracket.

also on the topic, don't play the lotto, it's semi-rigged, they have a supercomputer that crunches numbers to issue ticket numbers that have the least chance of winning and output carefully cross compared numbers into groups for staff to select those ball numbers and put them in tanks together, there's a lot of physics calcs as well as sequence calcs that go into it to predict as close to the most non-winning number as possible. really, it's why they don't put numbers 1 through 70 in each ball bin, it's all carefully planned.

the way around it is to put in custom numbers, but by doing so you register them into the system and the supercomputer gets to crunch them. the best way is to put in custom numbers as close to the cut-off time as possible, but those sneaky dastards give the super computer number cruncher a frick'in 2 hour buffer to run last second entries through!!!

Didn't we go through this already?  First, this is impossible.  Second, it is illegal.  Third, the largest jackpot winnings are split between the number of winners, so there's no such thing as numbers with the "least chance of winning."  If there's no winner, the pot carries over to the next drawing.  If there is a winner, the jackpot paid by the lottery operator is exactly the same no matter how many winners there are.  Regardless, there's always a winner eventually.

Theoretically speaking, there can be a higher or lower number of small jackpot winners, but those numbers are trivial compared to the size of the largest jackpot and there's no reason for the lottery operators to risk going to jail to manipulate those lesser numbers.

Actually, the little floating balls makes the Powerball lottery much more difficult to rig, because lotteries that rely on computer-selected random numbers *have* been subject to fraud, because computers can be tampered with in predictable ways.  Powerball can't easily be rigged, because it is much more difficult to tamper with the system in an undetectable way.


** You don't add tax rates.  You take the first rate of 39.6%, calculate the remainder as being 60.4% of the pot, and then apply the 10.8% tax rate to the remainder, which will leave behind 0.604 * 0.902 = 0.5448 = 54.48%, making the tax rate 1-0.5448 = 0.4552, or 45.52%.  City of Heroes players should recognize this as what I used to call "admittance calculations".

[Remaugen]

They draw those balls on TV in everyone's view, pretty hard to rig that.

[MM3squints]

it depends on your state tax as well as federal. but actually lottery winnings need to be claimed as such on your annual taxes, and the rules there have a whole different rate table (it is really much higher). it's common to get rates around 40 to 60%, you may scoff and be like "who the F would pay 60%?" the guy or gal who won, that's who, it's mandatory.

I am scoffing at this statement because there is no 60% tax on winnings. How do I know this? Possibly from the Forbes article I linked for this entire discussion that stated NYC was the highest taxed Lotto Winning in the Country and that is at 48.5%

As for state and local income tax, since high-tax California doesn't tax lottery winnings, the Big Apple takes the biggest bite out of  its own Powerball winners. New York City residents get hit with an 8.82% top state tax on income over around $2 million per couple and a 3.88% city levy on income over $500,000, for a combined top 12.7% rate.  Their only consolation: State and local taxes are deductible from federal taxable income. Unfortunately, as part of the fiscal cliff deal, a sneaky provision that gives a haircut to the value of deductions claimed by the better off came back. Bottom line: according to calculations by Gerald T. Prante and Austin John of the Lynchburg College School of Business and Economics, if a New York City resident wins the jackpot, he or she will end up paying at a top 48.5% combined federal, state and city rate, up from 43.3% in 2012, for a whopping total tax bill of $270.6 million, and a take home pot of $287.4 million.

also on the topic, don't play the lotto, it's semi-rigged, they have a supercomputer that crunches numbers to issue ticket numbers that have the least chance of winning and output carefully cross compared numbers into groups for staff to select those ball numbers and put them in tanks together, there's a lot of physics calcs as well as sequence calcs that go into it to predict as close to the most non-winning number as possible. really, it's why they don't put numbers 1 through 70 in each ball bin, it's all carefully planned.

the way around it is to put in custom numbers, but by doing so you register them into the system and the supercomputer gets to crunch them. the best way is to put in custom numbers as close to the cut-off time as possible, but those sneaky dastards give the super computer number cruncher a frick'in 2 hour buffer to run last second entries through!!!

You can spend 2 dollars on a Powerball ticket or 2 dollars on tin foil. I think I know which one you are going for.

[Aggelakis]

You can spend 2 dollars on a Powerball ticket or 2 dollars on tin foil. I think I know which one you are going for.

I am convinced Joshex has some sort of investment in Reynolds Wrap.

[Burnt Toast]

Stares....shakes head.

it depends on your state tax as well as federal. but actually lottery winnings need to be claimed as such on your annual taxes, and the rules there have a whole different rate table (it is really much higher). it's common to get rates around 40 to 60%, you may scoff and be like "who the F would pay 60%?" the guy or gal who won, that's who, it's mandatory.

also on the topic, don't play the lotto, it's semi-rigged, they have a supercomputer that crunches numbers to issue ticket numbers that have the least chance of winning and output carefully cross compared numbers into groups for staff to select those ball numbers and put them in tanks together, there's a lot of physics calcs as well as sequence calcs that go into it to predict as close to the most non-winning number as possible. really, it's why they don't put numbers 1 through 70 in each ball bin, it's all carefully planned.

the way around it is to put in custom numbers, but by doing so you register them into the system and the supercomputer gets to crunch them. the best way is to put in custom numbers as close to the cut-off time as possible, but those sneaky dastards give the super computer number cruncher a frick'in 2 hour buffer to run last second entries through!!!

[Arcana]

I am scoffing at this statement because there is no 60% tax on winnings. How do I know this? Possibly from the Forbes article I linked for this entire discussion that stated NYC was the highest taxed Lotto Winning in the Country and that is at 48.5%

As it turns out, that calculation is a lot more complex than I first thought.  I did get deductibility backwards (State taxes are deductible from the Federal taxable income not the other way around) and I used old numbers for New York's tax rates, but I also forgot to compensate for all of the deduction changes in the last budget deal.  I was following that closely because of 179 deductions (small business operators know what I'm talking about) but I haven't sat down and figured out all the rest yet (also, I'm not an accountant and have to specific need to know the rest any time soon).  Forbes is actually using calculations done by a university professor published in a paper.  It accounts for deductions, Medicare, ACA rules, and more.  It looks like something I would have done if I was a CPA, and not a City of Heroes player.

[Vee]

They draw those balls on TV in everyone's view, pretty hard to rig that.

It's true. In addition, people doing drawings on TV are vetted and are always completely trustworthy.

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.themenacingkitten.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F06%2Fbillcos.jpg

[darkgob]

You know, make fun of Joshex all you want, he was right about one thing:

don't play the lotto

[brothermutant]

You know, make fun of Joshex all you want, he was right about one thing:

You're just trying to keep me from winning, I can tell.

[pinballdave]

As it turns out, that calculation is a lot more complex than I first thought.  I did get deductibility backwards (State taxes are deductible from the Federal taxable income not the other way around) and I used old numbers for New York's tax rates, but I also forgot to compensate for all of the deduction changes in the last budget deal.  I was following that closely because of 179 deductions (small business operators know what I'm talking about) but I haven't sat down and figured out all the rest yet (also, I'm not an accountant and have to specific need to know the rest any time soon).  Forbes is actually using calculations done by a university professor published in a paper.  It accounts for deductions, Medicare, ACA rules, and more.  It looks like something I would have done if I was a CPA, and not a City of Heroes player.

At higher levels of taxable income, there is also a phase out of Schedule A itemized deductions.

[Thunder Glove]

If I were to win the $1.3 billion, I'd be quite happy to figure out how much tax I'd need to pay.  Unless it somehow amounts to $1.4 billion.

[hurple]

If I were to win the $1.3 billion, I'd be quite happy to figure out how much tax I'd need to pay.  Unless it somehow amounts to $1.4 billion.

There's a great old Abbot & Costello routine about that... Where Costello goes in to pay taxes on some money he won and ends up owing them $0.50 by the end of it.

[Pyromantic]

Most importantly, almost every game can claim to have achieved the goals the video narrator espouses, but by what objective criteria can we judge whether they actually do so, if any?  If you believe there is no such criteria, then you believe these videos are worthless, because there's no way even in theory to know if you're doing anything good as a game designer.  There's no point in having design goals if its literally impossible to know if you're doing anything helpful to achieve them.  Subjectivity plays a role in how a consumer might judge your work, but there still has to be an objective way to judge the creation process.  Otherwise might as well hire a bunch of monkeys to bang on the keyboards instead of gameplay designers.  If the video narrator believes that there is at least some kernel of objective way to judge good gameplay design (and I assume he does, because he makes a video series on that subject) then he should try to explain in what way can you at least try to objectively judge when these goals are being achieved.  The only concrete example he provides for how to make a good progression system is to allow respecification.  And even that I would contend is a situational design benefit.  How much should it cost before the cost becomes oppressive?  How much should it cost so its not trivially easy?  Which *parts* of the decision tree should be subject to respecification, and which should not?  All?  Why?

This is an example of something I feel has gone too far the other way in games.  Respecification has generally become so easy (in terms of needed time and other resources) that in effect the choice has no long-term consequence at all.  The choices you make only impact the short-term, the immediate capabilities of your character until the next time you need to make an adjustment.  The problem I have with this is that the choices no longer become character-definining.  Characters become all possible versions of a relatively limited number of selections (perhaps, for example, race and class) and choose between them at a moment's notice, perhaps simply because a quick respec gives access to the abilities wanted for the next boss fight.

One of the things City of Heroes did very well was to make each character feel distinct.  Not only is my character distinct from yours, but my controller is different than yours (by virtue of powersets), and even my earth/storm controller is different than your earth/storm controller. 

So, while I feel the ability to respec is important, it's gone too far the other way.  It's become so easy that there is no sense of investment in the specification you've chosen.

[Arcana]

At higher levels of taxable income, there is also a phase out of Schedule A itemized deductions.

I believe the paper references that specifically in terms of state tax deductibility.

[MM3squints]

It's true. In addition, people doing drawings on TV are vetted and are always completely trustworthy.

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.themenacingkitten.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F06%2Fbillcos.jpg

Is it bad the first thing that came to mind when I saw this was a caption, "Why~~ are you accusing me? I just wanted to put my Pudding Pop in a Jello box"

[chuckv3]

I look at it this way:

Spend nothing on lottery tickets: Chance of losing NOTHING is 100%.

Spend [any non-zero amount, let's call it X] on lottery tickets. Chance of losing X is 100% (rounded to the nearest 1-millionth of a percent).

Seems pretty simple what you should do now doesn't it??

Don't waste your time thinking about other outcomes. If the ridiculously unlikely does occur, deal with it then.

Or sit around thinking of what you'd do if hit by lightning or an asteroid, since those are marginally more likely.

[Pyromantic]

A friend of mine once said that what you pay for when buying a lottery ticket is the opportunity to dream about what you would do with the money for a week or so.

[chuckv3]

A friend of mine once said that what you pay for when buying a lottery ticket is the opportunity to dream about what you would do with the money for a week or so.

And if you are good at math, you spend a few days wondering why you flushed money down the toilet.

[Arcana]

You know, make fun of Joshex all you want, he was right about one thing:

I'm afraid I can't give partial credit for "don't play the lotto because its rigged by a supercomputer."