About that unclaimed lottery jackpot...It has been claimed

[Ms. Toad]

28. You're confusing the reduction for taking it in a lump sum

with the taxes owed on the winnings (regardless of whether you get the lump sum or the installent payments).

Imagine you’re in the enviable position of deciding how to take home $1.537 billion.

That’s the decision for one lucky person in South Carolina who holds the winning Mega Millions ticket for the second-largest jackpot ever.

The winner has two options: Take a lump sum payment of $878 million or get paid the entire jackpot over 30 annual payments.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/10/24/mega-millions-should-winner-take-lump-sum-annual-payments/1749411002/

The lump sum payout is the present day value of 1.5 billion - the amount that - if invested - would grow into 1.5 billion over the 30 years. It's sort of like a mortgage You can pay the sticker price for your new home all at once (a smaller amount) or you can make mortgage payments over 30 years (which will be a much larger amount because the payments include interest on the amount for up to 30 years).

Whatever you get in a single year is taxed - for an amount this large - mostly at 37%. Since he's taking the smaller one-time payout - all of it will be taxed this year - so he only gets (roughly) 63% of 800+ Million - or roughly 500 Million.