Kansas Powerball lottery winner claims jackpot anonymously

Oct 3, 2006, 1:27 pm (32 comments)

Powerball

A government worker and grandfather from the Topeka area stepped forward Monday to claim the $15 million Powerball jackpot from Wednesday's drawing.

The man, who under state law can remain anonymous, chose to take a cash lump-sum payment of $7.17 million instead of the entire amount over 29 years. After taxes, he took home a little more than $5 million.

"I'm now referring to my life as BP (Before Powerball) and AP (After Powerball)," he said. "Last Tuesday I was worried about how I was going to come up with the money to repair the leaky pipes in my old house and put new tires on my vehicle. That was BP. Now I have the AP attitude of, 'Who needs new tires? I can just buy a new vehicle.'"

The winner said he bought the Quick Pick ticket — with the winning combination 23-28-33-35-49-16 — at Dillons 64, a Topeka convenience store. The store, which sold a scratch-off Run the Table ticket worth $75,000 last week, will receive a $10,000 bonus from the Kansas Lottery.

The man said he has grown children and grandchildren and said he plans to use the money to travel, help his kids and plan a family reunion at "some exotic place that we couldn't have afforded before."

He said he also plans to continue working, although he said he might retire earlier than he had planned.

AP

Tags for this story

Other popular tags

Comments

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

I like the BP/AP attitude, except I hope he keeps it in perspective.  If I won a lot of money, but my car looked and ran well, I'd just get the new tires.

Just6ntlc

Congratulations to the Kansas winner stepping forward and take cash. I hope he doesn't have financial problems later in life.

guesser's avatarguesser

Like the rest of you I am sure, I'd take $5 million bucks, but there is something a bit wrong when you win $15 million and only get a tad over 1/3rd of it.........

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

Quote: Originally posted by guesser on Oct 4, 2006

Like the rest of you I am sure, I'd take $5 million bucks, but there is something a bit wrong when you win $15 million and only get a tad over 1/3rd of it.........

He didn't win 15 million. He won just over 7 million, and got to keep about 60% of it. I'd reather get more, but I could scrape by with 60% of 7 million.

dingo's avatardingo

I was also worried about putting new tires on my car. Fortunately, I purchased 2  used ones in good conditionBig Smile. I had the same situation, but I was not the winner. 

 

Congratulation to the lucky man. 

TheMaker's avatarTheMaker

CONGRATS TO HIM. MAY HE SPEND IT WISELY AND DO SOME INVESTING WITH IT.

 

 

Hurray! 

guesser's avatarguesser

Quote: Originally posted by KY Floyd on Oct 4, 2006

He didn't win 15 million. He won just over 7 million, and got to keep about 60% of it. I'd reather get more, but I could scrape by with 60% of 7 million.

How do you figure ?

It was advertised as 'a 15 million dollar jackpot', so he won 15 million, and got out of it with a bit over 5 million, after TAXES. 

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

Quote: Originally posted by guesser on Oct 5, 2006

How do you figure ?

It was advertised as 'a 15 million dollar jackpot', so he won 15 million, and got out of it with a bit over 5 million, after TAXES. 

I agree, guesser.  The annuity payment is such baloney, since he got less than 1/2 of the jackpot. At least he should have received $7.5 or $8 million. In FL most of the Lotto jackpots are paid at 55% or more, so that would be around $8.2M here.  Also, I always read that people take home much more than I calculate.  Federal tax can be as high as 35%. I'm not sure if Kansas has a state tax. So I figure after all taxes are paid, he'll really only have between $4 - $4.5M.  I agree it's a heck of a lot of money and I'll take it, but like a set of tires, the jackpots are often overinflated.

CA LotteryGuy

Justxploring...regarding your comment about people taking home more then you calculate, here is what I came up with regarding this situation.

                 Lump Sum                     $7,170,172     (found on Powerball web site)

                  Federal witholding      $1,792,543        (25%)

                 KS State witholding      $358,509         (5% per USA Mega web site)

                 Take Home                    $5,019,120

                Additional Federal Tax   $ 717,017        (10% based on 35% maximum rate)

                Additional State Tax         $  103,967       (1.45% based upon 6.45% maximum rate)

                Net proceeds                    $4,198,136

 

The comment regarding people taking home more then you calculate, maybe this will help.  The take home amount is based upon the deduction of witholding taxes.  When the  media reports an amount after taxes they are referring to witholding taxes only.  It is safe to say that lottery jackpot winners owe additional money come year end tax time. The above is based upon using the maximum tax rate for both federal and state taxes.  A tax pro might be able to lessen the tax burden.

Looks like your estimate of $4 - $4.5 million is in the ballpark.  

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

Thanks CA LotteryGuy.  It's just so obvious to me that so much of this is advertising hype.  I mean, who wouldn't want $4.1M? However, $15M sounds so much sweeter to most people.  I know they only take out 25% (same in FL) for Federal, but I always figure that a winner should put aside another 10%. If he has a good accountant, it might be lower but I'll bet the IRS pays special attention to people who win several million.

For some reason, many people think 28% is the maximum tax, which isn't true as we know. My complaint was that, just like the media and the politicians, leaving out little details can be very misleading.  For example, if someone asked me "How old are you?" and I answered "I'm 45" it would be true, but only if you have Math Dyslexia. 

(PS: I'm really 55, but then the example doesn't work. )  Jester

nc6string

Well, it isn't really baloney, if you want $15 million, you take the annuity, you'll get 15 million.  Everyone has to pay taxes, me, you and the winner - so that's no news flash.

 As far as 'he should have received x or y' well, that's not how lump sums are calculated.  Lump sums are based upon interest rates.  When interest rates are higher, lump sums go down.  When interest rates are lower, lump sums go up.  Rates have been rising steadily over the past year, so lump sum payments are going lower.  There's nothing underhanded about it, just simple mathematics.

CA LotteryGuy

Quote: Originally posted by nc6string on Oct 5, 2006

Well, it isn't really baloney, if you want $15 million, you take the annuity, you'll get 15 million.  Everyone has to pay taxes, me, you and the winner - so that's no news flash.

 As far as 'he should have received x or y' well, that's not how lump sums are calculated.  Lump sums are based upon interest rates.  When interest rates are higher, lump sums go down.  When interest rates are lower, lump sums go up.  Rates have been rising steadily over the past year, so lump sum payments are going lower.  There's nothing underhanded about it, just simple mathematics.

nc6string....compared to interest rates, the length of the annuity plays a bigger role in the value of an annuity.   The longer the annuity, the lower the lump sum. 

No where was this more evident then a few weeks ago when  Powerball and Mega Milions each had annuity values of $15 million.  The lump sum for Mega Millions (a 26 year annuity) was around $8.9 million while Powerball (a 29 year annuity) was valued at $7.1 million.  Since they both fund with governemnt securities, the two games probably have very similar interest rates.

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

Quote: Originally posted by nc6string on Oct 5, 2006

Well, it isn't really baloney, if you want $15 million, you take the annuity, you'll get 15 million.  Everyone has to pay taxes, me, you and the winner - so that's no news flash.

 As far as 'he should have received x or y' well, that's not how lump sums are calculated.  Lump sums are based upon interest rates.  When interest rates are higher, lump sums go down.  When interest rates are lower, lump sums go up.  Rates have been rising steadily over the past year, so lump sum payments are going lower.  There's nothing underhanded about it, just simple mathematics.

I didn't post that to start a debate or an argument.  I know how to multiply and divide without using a calculator.  I also have probably been to more seminars on annuities than most people, unless someone is also a licensed advisor. Still doesn't change my opinion of Powerball and its cash payout. 

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

Had to get the phone, so I couldn't edit...too late.  Does anyone know how many PB or MM winners have actually chosen to take the annuity?  The Washington Post reported this, but it was in 2003. I was curious and can't find the information.

"Everybody takes the money, says Powerball spokesman Mahoney. In all the years of mega-jackpots, he said, only one big winner has ever wanted the annuity. "

It's just that for so many years people have chosen the lump sum and out of all these people, I'm guessing a few of them have to be pretty smart investors. A big winner in FL was a successful stockbroker and he took the cash. I realize that to win the lottery a person doesn't have to be too bright, but if nobody chooses annual payments, then it either means after winning they realize it's the best choice, someone is lying to them and they all get duped, or they all made a big mistake.

Subscribe to this news story
Guest