r/memes • u/PoopsMcScoots • 20h ago

The lotto is stupid enough. Stop screwing people over.

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u/alcomaholic-aphone 18h ago

I haven’t looked into it but is this just another case of the US putting the price before tax? Like in our stores an item has a dollar amount and then you go to the register and they add the tax on that. When we get paid our salary it’s 60k or whatever but tax will come out of that. Our whole system always talks about prices like taxes don’t exist.

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u/kilertree 11h ago edited 11h ago

That is because products in a store are taxed by the state, not the federal government. As a resident of Michigan it does suck going to a different state and finding out they tax food.

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u/Stevesegallbladder 17h ago

Not quite in fact it's kind of "tax free" in the sense that if it's $5 to play you wouldn't pay the sales tax on that ticket. However if/when you win that money is taxed as income tax. So one could spend $10 and win $600 million. The $10 wouldn't be taxed but for that tax year you've made $600M in income so they expect you to report it on your filings.

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u/alcomaholic-aphone 17h ago

Wonder if it has something to do with buying directly from the government. I don’t think the DMV taxes me either when I buy a license or get a plate tag.

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u/NoBear2 8h ago

I just registered my car and I paid a sales tax on that purchase

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u/Sufficient-Clue4686 4h ago

In canada its not taxed at the register or taxed on collection.

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u/DaFreakingFox 15h ago

Oh here you just pay vat on the tickets 

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u/GhettoFreshness 17h ago

Salaries in Australia at least are usually listed as your pre-tax income, so i don’t think that’s exclusive to the US. Plus I think the tax on lotteries can be pretty high in the US (higher than your normal salary band tax)

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u/alcomaholic-aphone 17h ago

Like I said I’m not fully versed on this but I know some states in the US take a lot of the money before printing the number for schools and such. And then others print the whole number accrued and take money later.

Do your communities not take a portion of the money for community projects? That’s like the whole point of the lottery even existing.

The us just has 50 different states doing different lottos. And there are even other lottos done by multiple states together. There is no real unanimous regularity to them.

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u/GhettoFreshness 16h ago

A lot of the money paid for tickets goes to community projects yes, but it’s not also taxed out of the individual/group lucky enough to win it. Any earnings off those winnings (I.e. interest accrued etc) will be taxed at the appropriate tax band for your overall income

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u/alcomaholic-aphone 16h ago

That’s generally what the lotto is used for in the US too. Education and roads/infrastructure are the big ones here. Whether that is taken out before they announce the winnings or after I don’t know.