A lucky lottery player will take home twice as much as expected.
North Carolina Education Lottery officials revealed that a Burlington convenience store sold a winning Mega Millions ticket drawn on Friday’s numbers.
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The ticket matched all five white balls drawn, but one option selected by the player doubled the prize, local NBC News affiliate reported. XIX.
With the five matching numbers, the ticket automatically won $1 million and so the lottery had to take the ticket’s megaplier status into consideration.
Costing just an initial investment of $3, the megaplier ticket doubled the prize from $1 million for a $2 million pot.
Winning with a megaplier ticket on this measure has a 1 in 12.6 million chance.
This prize was the largest win nationwide in Friday’s drawing.
While the $2 million prize is nothing to sneeze at, the Mega Million jackpot is still up for grabs.
Currently, the identity of the winner has not yet been announced, but the North Carolina Education Lottery policy (NCEL), the winner must come forward to reveal their identity.
When the prize is claimed, the winner’s name, city/county and prize amount are made public unless the player has a valid legal order protecting their identity from being known.
The winner has 180 days to claim their prize, giving them adequate time to get their affairs in order and prepare for reactions to their big win.
The pot has grown to $148 million as an annual fee or $67.8 million as a one-time payment – the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302 million.
REDUCTION OF THE HAPPY TAX PREMIUM
All lottery winnings are subject to federal and state taxes at varying rates.
Patricia Brunson, also from North Carolina, won $10 million on a scratch-off ticket she bought for $50, only to lose almost half of it in taxes.
After federal and state taxes were taken out of the amount, she ended up taking home about $4.3 million.
Wilbur Grant was forced to give up more than $570,000 of his $1 million prize, taking home $429,003.
Lottery Prizes: Lump Sum vs Annual Fee
Lottery winners in the US must make a difficult decision about how they want to claim their prizes.
What is a one-time payment?
- Lottery winners can accept a one-time cash payment.
- Although a winner would lose a portion of their payout in taxes, they would likely lose more over time with annual payments.
What are annual payments?
- Installments are paid as one immediate payment followed by a series of annual payments.
- This guarantees an inflow of money for years or even decades, but some winners worry that tax rates could increase over time.
“To invest better, you don’t just need to choose a good, diversified, low-cost portfolio,” said Charles Weeks, founding partner at Barrister, via USA today.
“You will also need to make sure you control your emotions in good and bad markets.”
Dr. Josh McConkey scored big playing the North Carolina Cash 5 game, winning a $1.5 million prize.
He was forced to split the prize with another winner and, after taxes, collected $541,670.
In North Carolina, the tax rate on lottery winnings is 5.25%; the federal jackpot tax is 24%.
Revenue raised by the lottery in North Carolina is directly channeled toward education efforts in the state.
“To date, the fun of playing the lottery has raised more than $10 billion for education in North Carolina since the lottery’s inception. Last year alone, the lottery raised more than $1 billion,” the report says. NCEL website.
The funding is divided among several projects, including funding preschools for disadvantaged families, upgrading school construction, creating college scholarships, and paying salaries to educators.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
