Would You Inform Anyone if You Won the Lotto?

[Jester]

This one is easy. Don't tell anyone and don't sign the back of the winning ticket, since that gives the press your name.

What you do is make a copy of the ticket. Keep the primary ticket in a safety deposit box or fireproof safe. You then get a tax/estate attorney and give him a retainer of $1K minimum. Once you've signed your working agreement and have that in place, you have him create a trust for you and then, make the law office, the sole go between, between the trust and the lottery commission. By attorney-client confidentiality agreement, the law office cannot divulge your information without facing being disbarred. The lottery commission will only have the name, ABC trust, and the law offices of Billy, Bob, and Thorton, That information will go into the public website for the world to see. The press will only see your attorney at the lottery commission for the handling. Once the money is transferred over, pay the law office for all services rendered, probably some $10K to $20K, after everything is said and done.

Then, you make up a bogus story to your friends and family and tell 'em that you've re-located to the 'London Office'. Basically, you go to London to set up your global trading and/or managed accounts. Afterwards, you maintain your home base in the US for the remainder of the year but move to some tax haven as a permanent address. For that first year, you'll have to pay full US taxes on your winnings. Afterwards, you can claim exemption on additional cap gains or income up to $91K, for the rest of your life, as an ex-pat.

From there-forth, you're a free man. Enjoy the world.

SParc, I am imressed with your knowledge.

One small nuance: for the $91500 per year Foreign Earned Income exclusion, the income has to be earned as salary/wages... OR... schedule C earned self-employment income. AND -- if the latter, cannot be capital gains using CAPITAL, e.g. trading gains. Must be done substantially without capital.

This is an area where a lot of people do it the wrong way (live overseas as a day trader and claim the FEI exclusion). BUT... if you won the lotto, you better do everything right.

[Jester]

Jeez, like there's a chance that would actually happen--

It's pretty hard to hide that fact that you have some money-- just don't be flashy and don't let people know how much exactly.

It would probably be hard to hide the fact that you have a lot of free time too--

The same rules apply if you ran into a lot of money-- people would just think you earn 200 or 300K a year---

Only your house would give it away-- as long as you don't buy a fancier car than a BMW, Mercedes or Porsche.

Just tell people you don't know that you own some real estate or something-- they'll just nod their head and go uh-huh....

My best friend rarely works. He has a janitorial company. He steps in if there is a problem. If everything runs smooth, crews of Latinos do the cleaning at night. He spends days at the beach, socializing, etc.


So maybe the company is just cover. Maybe he is just a lottery winner, enjoying his life.

[momopi]

We do lotto pools at the office with signed contract. Lotto laws vary by state, in California the Public Disclosure Law requires the following disclosures:
* Winner's full name
* Name and location of retailer where the winning ticket was sold
* Date the prize was won
* Amount of winnings, including gross and net installment payments

The lotto winner is not required to participate in any publicity events, including photo sessions, ceremonies, announcements, etc. when they claim the prize. The winnings can be assigned to a trust, but your full legal name and other information listed above is required by law to be placed in public records.

In the past, when State lottos were relatively "small", as in typical winnings were in the millions and not hundreds of millions, there isn't enough money to go around to all the friends and relatives and still enjoy a wealthy lifestyle . But recently the mega jackpots are in the hundreds of millions. That's enough to setup a separate trust fund to be generous to your relatives and few close friends. Instead of a lump sum cash gift, they get a smaller monthly deposit to their bank account for the remainder of their life. The tricky part is to give enough to be generous but not too much to get them in trouble.

Also, it might be good to take a vacation overseas for a while, or even move overseas for few years. Many crazy people will want to come beg for money at your doorstep or even break into your house. Much harder for them to get to you when you're in Paris.