# Lottery After Taxes

> What a Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot is worth after federal, state and local taxes in all 50 states and DC, as the cash option or as 30 annuity payments, for the current jackpots and for any other amount. Figures use the official current jackpots and cash values (Powerball $360 million, cash value $153.6 million, for the Saturday, September 26, 2026 drawing; Mega Millions $300 million, cash value $124.1 million, for the Tuesday, September 29, 2026 drawing), IRS rules for 2026 and each state's rules for lottery prizes (checked September 26, 2026). They are estimates for planning, not tax or legal advice.

How the figures are computed: the cash option (the official cash value for the current jackpot; for any other amount, the latest official cash-to-jackpot ratio: 42.67% for Powerball and 41.37% for Mega Millions) is taxed as ordinary income at 2026 federal rates. 24% is withheld when the prize is claimed (on prizes over $5,000) and the rest is due at filing; the top rate is 37% on taxable income over $640,600 for a single filer. State tax is the state's rate on lottery prizes applied to the whole prize (the top rate where rates are progressive). New York City adds 3.876% of the prize and Yonkers 16.75% of the state tax. The annuity is 30 payments, each 5% larger than the last, that add up to the advertised jackpot; each payment is taxed in its own year under 2026 rules.

Freshness: jackpots are refreshed after every drawing (Powerball on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday; Mega Millions on Tuesday and Friday). If a refresh fails, pages keep the last confirmed value and show a notice. Tax rules are for tax year 2026, rechecked every January. Every page states the date of its data.

Jurisdictions that do not tax lottery prizes: Alaska, California, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming (California exempts only prizes from tickets bought in California). Residents of states without a lottery buy tickets elsewhere and still owe their home state's tax.

## Main pages
- [Current jackpots after taxes](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/): both current jackpots, what a winner keeps in the best and worst states, and the calculator
- [Powerball after taxes by state](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/powerball/after-taxes/): the $360 million jackpot in all 50 states and DC, cash and annuity
- [Mega Millions after taxes by state](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/mega-millions/after-taxes/): the $300 million jackpot in all 50 states and DC, cash and annuity
- [Best states to win the lottery](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/best-states-to-win-the-lottery/): all 50 states and DC ranked by cash kept
- [Largest jackpots after taxes](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/history/): record jackpots, what winners kept then and under today's rules

## Calculators and hubs
- [Lottery tax calculator](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/calculator/): any prize, any state, ticket bought in another state, other income
- [Lump sum vs annuity](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/lump-sum-vs-annuity/): the after-tax return the cash needs to beat the annuity, year by year
- [Powerball annuity payment schedule](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/powerball/annuity-schedule/): all 30 payments before and after tax, for any state
- [Mega Millions annuity payment schedule](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/mega-millions/annuity-schedule/): all 30 payments before and after tax, for any state
- [Embed widget](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/embed/): the current jackpot after taxes in one state, for other websites

## Data and methodology
- [Methodology](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/methodology/): every step of the calculation and every assumption
- [Sources](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/sources/): IRS, game rules and the rules of all 50 states and DC, with the date each was checked
- [Changelog](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/changelog/): jackpot refreshes and data changes (also as [RSS](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/feed.xml))

## URL patterns
- `https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/{game}/after-taxes/` — the current jackpot after taxes in all 50 states and DC; game = powerball | mega-millions
- `https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/{game}/after-taxes/{state}/` — the current jackpot after taxes in one state; state = the name in lowercase with hyphens (texas, new-york, district-of-columbia; all 50 states and DC). Optional query: status=single|married_joint|married_separate|head_of_household, option=cash|annuity, local=nyc|yonkers (New York only)
- `https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/{game}/{amount}-after-taxes/` — any of 55 advertised jackpot amounts after taxes in every state; amount = 20-million to 100-million (every $10 million), 125-million to 500-million (every $25 million), 550-million to 1-billion (every $50 million), 1.1-billion to 3-billion (every $100 million). Optional query: state={two-letter code}, status=single|married_joint|married_separate|head_of_household
- `https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/{game}/annuity-schedule/` — the 30 payments of the current jackpot before and after tax. Optional query: state={two-letter code}, status=single|married_joint|married_separate|head_of_household, local=nyc|yonkers
- `https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/calculator/` — any prize. Query: game, amount (dollars, or 500m, 1.2b), kind=jackpot|prize, state={code}, bought={code of the state where the ticket was bought}, status, local, other={other taxable income}, option=cash|annuity
- `https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/lump-sum-vs-annuity/` — break-even after-tax return for the current Powerball jackpot. Query: state={code}, status, return={percent a year}
- `https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/history/{slug}/` — one record jackpot after taxes; slugs are listed on https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/history/
- `https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/og/{page path}.png` — the page's 1200×630 preview image

## API
- [API docs](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/api/), [OpenAPI](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/openapi.json): free, read-only JSON, no key, 60 requests a minute per IP address
- `GET https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/api/v1/net?game=powerball&state=TX` — after-tax breakdown of a jackpot in one state: cash option (federal withheld, federal due at filing, state, local, net) and annuity (first payment, total net), break-even return. Optional: amount (dollars; default the current jackpot), cash, status, local
- `GET https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/api/v1/jackpots` — current advertised jackpots, cash values, next drawing dates and freshness for both games

## Markdown
Every page has a markdown version: same path + `.md` (home: `/index.md`), or request any page with `Accept: text/markdown`.

## Optional
- [Full content](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/llms-full.txt): the main pages and all reference data in one file
- [XML sitemap](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/sitemap.xml), [HTML sitemap](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/sitemap/)
- [Legal notice](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/legal-notice/), [Privacy policy](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/privacy/), [Terms of use](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/terms/), [Contact](https://lotteryaftertaxes.com/contact/)

## Citation
Cite as "Lottery After Taxes (lotteryaftertaxes.com)", link the page, give the data date. Publisher: Pablo Bravo Villanueva.