Michael Carroll, National Lottery millionaire from Norfolk, wants his dustbin job back after losing his fortune. He was only 19 when he won £10m and now, eight years later, he needs to get a job again. Carroll says that: “it will get me back into reality instead of the rollercoaster I’ve been on for the last eight years.”
The lucky lottery winner, Michael Carroll, had problems with the law and was arrested for affray in 2006. He also admitted that he spent most of his fortune on drugs. Now he is selling his house and looking for a job.
So no matter if you are a National Lottery or a Superenalotto winner, if you don’t know what to do with the money, you will realize soon enough that your gigantic fortune has come to an end.
70-year-old Charles Andrews claims that a clerk from a Speedway store refused to sell him a lottery ticket for the February 2008 Hoosier Lottery a few minutes before the cutoff time. Andrews kept the pay slip with the store and his numbers turned out to be equivalent to $11.5 million jackpot.
Speedway store representatives claim that the incident did not occur as Andrews has illustrated and currently they are looking for a security tape that can shed a light upon the events from that night.
According to the Hoosier Lottery spokeswoman vendors are able to set their own hours for selling lottery tickets, but all sales must be completed by 10:40 p.m. Andrews’ lawyers say that the law isn’t explicit about the retail hours and that “it’s only fair to the citizens who spend their hard-earned money on the lottery to know when the lottery is open…”. The lawsuit was transferred to federal court and now awaits judge’s ruling.
Taxes on Lottery Winnings
Both federal and state taxes are applicable on lottery winnings, though in some regions, lottery winnings may be subjected to local income taxes too. The total tax percentage may vary, based on the winner’s annual income and the total winning amount. After calculating the taxable amount imposed by the federal and state jurisdiction, the tax may at times total up to even 50 percent of the lottery amount.
According to the jurisdiction applied in the concerned state, there may be options for receiving the lottery winnings. In general, there are two choices, namely; lump sum payment and installment payments. Also, the taxable percentage may change according to Internal Revenue Service regulations. The following is a brief discussion about lump sum cash payments and installment payments:
Lump Sum Cash payment
If a winner has selected a lump sum payment of the lottery amount, the lottery commission pays about 65 percent of the total cash. This amount is subject to the federal and state taxes, which may amount to about 50 percent of the remaining money. For example, you won $1,00,000 lottery and the lottery commission gives you $65,000. After tax deductions, the amount you receive could be just about $32,500.
Installment payment
Speaking about the installment payments of lottery winnings, the ideal option is to select for a structured annuity plan. Under such annuities, insurance companies are involved, which are responsible for payment in small fractions at regular intervals, with increments. The major advantages of installment payments for lottery
In the USA the following are the largest single lump sum payouts:
* Andrew J. Whittaker Jr. of West Virginia, won $314.9 million in the Powerball drawing of December 25, 2002. Opting as most large prize winners in the U.S. do for the lump sum, his after-tax prize was $114 million.
* Geraldine Williams from Lowell, Mass. is the largest single Mega Millions winner, at $294 million. The $168 million lump sum she opted for was reported as $117.6 million after taxes.
* Harold and Helen Lerner of New Jersey also claimed a higher after-tax lump sum than Whittaker in Mega Millions for the September 16, 2005 drawing, as New Jersey then had no state tax on lottery prizes. They chose to receive $156 million in cash instead of the $258 million face value. Then there is a 25 percent federal withholding tax[citation needed], which left them with around $117 million.
* The October 19, 2005 Powerball drawing won by nine members of the West and Chaney families of Medford, Oregon was for a larger annuity ($340 million) but a smaller lump sum than Whittaker’s.
* On February 22, 2008, Robert and Tayne Harris of Portal, Georgia claimed the only Mega Millions jackpot ticket, with an annuity value of $270 million (cash value $167 million) before taxes. After 25% percent federal withholding and 6% state withholding, they were left with around $115 million.
Back down under in OZ, 74-year-old won an amazing $50 million lottery jackpot. BRian Caswell a keen amateur gardener said that he’d likely spend part of his jackpot prize employing a gardening expert to teach him how to grow better carrots.
Mr Caswell told reporters that for years depsite his success in many other garden vedge that he’s just always struggled with carrots. Brian spends hours every day outside at his prize-winning allotment. Together with his wife their retirement has been filled with endless enjoyable days maintaining the patch with Joan, 71 near their home in Halliwell.
“I’ve been trying to grow carrots ever since I’ve been on that allotment and I’ve never had any success,” he said. He said the couple had decided to go public with the news of their huge win in last Friday’s Euromillion draw on the advice of lottery operator Camelot.
“How could you keep that secret?” he said. “The answer is you can’t.” His wife said she was still adjusting to her sudden wealth, which saw the couple’s win splashed on the front of the Sun and the Daily Mirror newspapers.
“What I’m going to do now is bring a professional in and say, ‘Right, sort that out’.”
Over in Australia, a couple from Queensland couple shared the jackpot with man from Adelaide. Both are today $53 million better off in their bank accounts after together winning a share of Australia’s largest ever super lotto jackpot draw. Lottery entrants had a 45-1 chance of winning something after the roll-over, but still that did not prevent locals from purchasing over 10 million tickets from stores and online for this record breaking lottery draw.
The Australian lottery draw was originally planned for $90 million but was increased pushed up by a huge amount of last minute lottery ticket purchases from people hopig to win their share of the bumper payout. It meant the first prize rose to over $105 million with a complete prize pool of over $175 million.
Rebecca Payne from the South Australian Lotteries Board had the pleasure of notifiying the one of the winners – the annonymous man from Adelaide as he’s become known. All that’s know about him is that he’s in his 40s and has been a regular lottery player for over 20 years.
“He said, ‘I can’t quite believe this’ and he was in quite a state of shock as it was,” Ms Payne said. “That’s when he said to me, ’so how much have I won – $2 million, $3 million?’ “And I said to him, ‘are you sitting down?’ And that’s when I said, ‘you’ve actually won slightly more than that – you’ve won $53 million’.
A lovely story straight out of America. When a free Fantasy 5 lottery ticket converted into a $1,298,332 jackpot win for a man in Georgia. Robert Patterson Jr. won the prize with a free ticket matching the required 5 winning numbers in the July 17 Fantasy 5 drawing.
“It was on a free ticket, and I think that’s probably important for everyone to know,” said Robert, who won the jackpot. By matching two of five numbers in a previous Fantasy 5 draw his prize was a free ticket for the next coming lottery draw. Robert then used a lottery checker to review the results from his free ticket and was shocked and excited to discover he’s won the jackpot.
“I just looked at it and said, ‘I’m going to travel,’ ” he explained. “I don’t know where yet but probably Europe and some islands. It is exciting, the possibilities.”
William Morris, Jr. walked into the Fruitland Exxon one July morning with just $10 in his pocket. He walked out with a $50,000 winning scratch-off. “I hesitated to buy the ticket for the lotto. It was the funniest feeling going in with all I had.”
The 54-year-old from Salisbury said he plays scratch-offs every chance he gets. He came to Lottery Headquarters Monday afternoon, still shaking. “I am still jittery,” he said. “I’ve worked for many years and have never seen a check like that!”
William plans to share his winnings with family and friends. “My goal in life is to help people,” he said. “I’ve needed help, so I know what it is like to be in need.”
This is the kind of lottery winner story we love to hear and love to share with our readers. Often the kind of story you read of in America, but every now and again a great one pops up over the Atlantic. In the UK you can had to a McDonald’s fast food outlet in Cardiff, Wales, UK and meet you’re very own lotto jackpot millionaire. Luke Pittard won 1.3 million pounds and celebrated in the usual fashion; he bought a new home and spent a fortune on a dream wedding and honeymoon holiday in the Canary Islands.
After the thrill of winning and novelty of the cash wore off Luke realized that he really missed the lifestyle and simplicity of his old job. So he asked to go back and couldn’t be happier, getting up at the crack of dawn to flip burgers for £5.85 an hour. “They all think I’m a bit mad but I tell them there’s more to life than money,” he said. “I loved working at McDonald’s before I became a millionaire and I’m really enjoying being back there again.”
But 18 months later, the novelty of early retirement wore off. “Lots of my old McDonald’s workmates came to our wedding and I had kept in touch with them all the time, so I just thought: ‘Why not go back?’” said Mr Pittard.
In Canada Lottery life it was a case of good and bad news for Barry Shell. The good news was when he discovered that he’d won over $4 million in the lotto, the bad news was that by the end of the day he’d ended up arrested and placed in jail. Barry Shell, from Brampton, Ontario in Canada chose to pick up his winning check for $4,377,298, which was the jackpot prize in the July 18 draw for the Lotto 6/49.
“I went to the store and checked my ticket on the self-serve ticket checker,” Shell was quoted as saying in a news release from the Ontario Loterie and Gaming Corporation. “As soon as I saw how much I had won, I grabbed a pen and signed my ticket.”
On Monday afternoon, a happy and joyous Barry Shell was published in a photo holding up his winning check outside the OLG headquarters on Dundas Street West in Toronto. After the photo was taken he walked away from the building and straight into the waiting arms of the local Peel Police officers. Shell was apparantly wanted by police on a six-year-old charge for failing to appear in court in relation to a theft of $5,000 and being in possession of property obtained through crime.
According to a spokesman for the OLG, every lottery winner undergoes a security check, and if anything is turned up during the course of the investigation the matter is turned over to the Ontario Provincial Police. Shell, 45, was held overnight and appeared in court on Tuesday. He has been charged and released.
The news release said Shell “has no immediate plans for the windfall.”
