TAX TAKE
A WOMAN won $344million on the Powerball but has received less than half of it after she decided to take the lump sum.
Lerynne West from Dexter, Iowa, won a $687.8million Powerball jackpot during a drawing in October 2018.
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After winning the lotto, West, a single mother who had six grandchildren at the time, said that her "life is changed forever."
West, who was 51 years old when she won, had to share the nearly $700million prize with a winner from New York City.
Once the jackpot was split, West was offered $343.9million, but she had a very important, and controversial, decision to make.
She could get $343.9million through annuity checks, which means she would get the amount in 30 graduated payments over 29 years.
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With this option, 24 percent of each payment would be withheld for federal taxes and five percent for state taxes.
But West decided to go with the second option.
She took a lump sum payment of $198.1million, which is the untaxed amount.
West could have gotten even less money upfront if she opted for the $140.6million prize, which already would have taxes taken out of it.
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The appeal to this option is that you don't have to worry about paying taxes on your winnings when tax season rolls around.
Another lotto winner, Sydney from Idaho, explained why she decided to take the taxed amount of $35,000 on a $50,000 scratch-off reward.
She exclusively told The U.S. Sun: "I know that I would be more tempted to spend $50,000 if I had it and I didn't wanna risk not being able to pay the taxes when tax season came, which was going to be in just a few months.
Sydney used the money to get a downpayment on a house and she says her property value has already increased by $20k.
What's her secret? Planning ahead.
"Months before winning the lottery, I had been searching for homes online," said Sydney.
She explained: "I am the type of person that I always know what I'm working towards," which benefited her when winning the jackpot in December 2021.
"I had been looking into how mortgages work [...] and even gotten a pre-qualification months before knowing I couldn't afford a down payment."
Sydney added: "I already had identified what I wanted in my life at that point in time, and this was just a way to facilitate it."