When I was employed, I would occasionally buy a few lottery tickets. My fellow engineers pointed out that the odds of winning were low, to which my reply was "The odds of getting rich by winning the lottery are much higher than by working here."
I worked at CITR!X when it was a startup (I was employee number 25)… it now is over 10k employees. We used to pool money each week to play the lotto. It’s wild that half the people who played are multi millionaires from the stock after it went public.
I just got my check for the one share I from my stock options that I paid $.10 for the share… the check is over $400 (the company went private and I had to cash it or lose it to the state).
The VP of marketing played the lottery in the pool, but when he got fired from CITR!X he didn’t exercise his options… 20,000 shares for $2,000! I remember him saying that he didn’t think the company was going to make it (in 1991 it didn’t look like it was but it still had a spark when we decided to work on Multiuser Windows).
I offered to buy his shares but he declined… I personally didn’t play in the lotto pool with my coworkers, but I was willing to gamble on our company!
Lastly, I want to plug your Daily Dirtnap newsletter of which I subscribe…. Last year you told us to buy way out of the money options on silver (I bought a “lotto” position of 1/10th if 1% of my net worth, where if I lost it, I’m not out much) well, it hit… 30 times my initial investment! That is the gambling I prefer to do (when the odds of winning are not in the hundreds of millions to one!!!)
A couple of years ago I was surprised to learn CA does not tax lottery winnings: California does not tax lottery winnings from the California State Lottery, including games like SuperLotto, Powerball, and Mega Millions.
This exemption is due to a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1984, which specifically prohibits state and local taxation of lottery winnings.
As a result, California residents who win these lotteries are not required to pay state income tax on their prize.
However, federal taxes are still applicable. The IRS requires lottery winnings to be reported as ordinary income on federal tax returns, and a mandatory 24% federal withholding is applied to prizes over $5,000.
The actual tax liability may be higher depending on the winner’s overall income and tax bracket.
It is important to note that while California does not tax its own lottery winnings, winnings from lotteries in other states are subject to California state income tax.
Additionally, gambling losses can be deducted from gambling winnings as an itemized deduction on Schedule A of the federal tax return, but only up to the amount of winnings.
Winners should report their full winnings on their federal tax return and make appropriate adjustments on their California return to exclude California Lottery winnings from state taxable income.
Failure to report winnings can result in penalties, fines, or legal consequences.
A few years ago I was standing behind a guy who was donating to the state in exchange for a ticket that had the potential to win a billion dollars. I said, "Good luck cousin"
He gave me a go to hell look and said, "I don't know you."
"Yes, but when you win a billion dollars; you will."
Form an LLC, and 501c3 entity and give it all to that. Tax free, all you have to do is give away 5% of the corpus every year. If you buy dividend kings, you probably do better than that, nothing fancy, like ET or WES, or MO or O.
Will never buy an online ticket again. I purchased a few tickets through online website for the NC education lottery. I won $250 cash 5 draw once and realized that my winning information is available immediately online before I even knew I won. The zombies will know you won big before you even have a chance to react. Still trying to win it tho because someone always does!
I live in a state where lottery winners can't choose anonymity, but if I ever win I'm going to bank on having a name about as generic as "John Smith." Plausible deniability can come in handy at times.
Lotteries are a special tax payed only by people who are bad at math, the rest of us are tax exempt. I like being exempt from at least one form of taxation.
When I was employed, I would occasionally buy a few lottery tickets. My fellow engineers pointed out that the odds of winning were low, to which my reply was "The odds of getting rich by winning the lottery are much higher than by working here."
I worked at CITR!X when it was a startup (I was employee number 25)… it now is over 10k employees. We used to pool money each week to play the lotto. It’s wild that half the people who played are multi millionaires from the stock after it went public.
I just got my check for the one share I from my stock options that I paid $.10 for the share… the check is over $400 (the company went private and I had to cash it or lose it to the state).
The VP of marketing played the lottery in the pool, but when he got fired from CITR!X he didn’t exercise his options… 20,000 shares for $2,000! I remember him saying that he didn’t think the company was going to make it (in 1991 it didn’t look like it was but it still had a spark when we decided to work on Multiuser Windows).
I offered to buy his shares but he declined… I personally didn’t play in the lotto pool with my coworkers, but I was willing to gamble on our company!
Lastly, I want to plug your Daily Dirtnap newsletter of which I subscribe…. Last year you told us to buy way out of the money options on silver (I bought a “lotto” position of 1/10th if 1% of my net worth, where if I lost it, I’m not out much) well, it hit… 30 times my initial investment! That is the gambling I prefer to do (when the odds of winning are not in the hundreds of millions to one!!!)
A couple of years ago I was surprised to learn CA does not tax lottery winnings: California does not tax lottery winnings from the California State Lottery, including games like SuperLotto, Powerball, and Mega Millions.
This exemption is due to a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1984, which specifically prohibits state and local taxation of lottery winnings.
As a result, California residents who win these lotteries are not required to pay state income tax on their prize.
However, federal taxes are still applicable. The IRS requires lottery winnings to be reported as ordinary income on federal tax returns, and a mandatory 24% federal withholding is applied to prizes over $5,000.
The actual tax liability may be higher depending on the winner’s overall income and tax bracket.
It is important to note that while California does not tax its own lottery winnings, winnings from lotteries in other states are subject to California state income tax.
Additionally, gambling losses can be deducted from gambling winnings as an itemized deduction on Schedule A of the federal tax return, but only up to the amount of winnings.
Winners should report their full winnings on their federal tax return and make appropriate adjustments on their California return to exclude California Lottery winnings from state taxable income.
Failure to report winnings can result in penalties, fines, or legal consequences.
A few years ago I was standing behind a guy who was donating to the state in exchange for a ticket that had the potential to win a billion dollars. I said, "Good luck cousin"
He gave me a go to hell look and said, "I don't know you."
"Yes, but when you win a billion dollars; you will."
Form an LLC, and 501c3 entity and give it all to that. Tax free, all you have to do is give away 5% of the corpus every year. If you buy dividend kings, you probably do better than that, nothing fancy, like ET or WES, or MO or O.
Wyoming doesn’t have an income tax.
Will never buy an online ticket again. I purchased a few tickets through online website for the NC education lottery. I won $250 cash 5 draw once and realized that my winning information is available immediately online before I even knew I won. The zombies will know you won big before you even have a chance to react. Still trying to win it tho because someone always does!
I live in a state where lottery winners can't choose anonymity, but if I ever win I'm going to bank on having a name about as generic as "John Smith." Plausible deniability can come in handy at times.
TEXAS has been an anonymous state from the time voters first approved the lottery, AND we have no state income tax...
Lotteries are a special tax payed only by people who are bad at math, the rest of us are tax exempt. I like being exempt from at least one form of taxation.