Who said Friday the 13th brings bad luck?
Not for an Ormoc City, Leyte, resident who won P43,017,157.80 during last Friday’s, May 13, after he placed a bet in the Mega Lotto 6/45 draw.
Balikbayan lotto winner 'loses' P223M
Remember the super lucky balikbayan from New York City, United States, who won P741.17-million in the Nov. 29, 2010 Grand Lotto 6/55 draw, the largest online lottery jackpot in the Philippines?
While his prize was tax-free in the Philippines, he lost P223 million in taxes to the United States government.
A very reliable source who is a top-level executive in a government agency relayed the information to the Manila Bulletin on the ironic twist of events experienced by the 60-year-old Filipino, a civil engineer who works in the Big Apple as building estimator.
Obviously, the source said, the balikbayan, who has been working for a long time in New York, is already a US citizen and green cardholder, thus he is covered by American tax laws.
He really cannot escape paying taxes to the US if he is an American citizen.
“Imagine, not a single centavo was deducted from his P741.17 million prize because lotto prizes in the country are pre-deducted with tax. So what the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) says is the lotto jackpot is exactly what every winner gets,” the source said.
He said he learned this information from an unimpeachable source who was privy to what happened to the balikbayan’s Grand Lotto bonanza.
He said his source told him that the winner took to the US half of his lotto winnings (about US$16 million) and deposited the rest with a bank in the Philippines for his retirement.
The source said it was not difficult for the US government to identify the balikbayan winner because he has to declare the money he was bringing in.
“Obviously, the US government 2011got wind of his lucky streak in Manila and asked him to haul all his lotto winnings to America. In the US, the balikbayan was assessed a 30 percent tax, which is about R223 million,” the source said.
“Malungkot din isipin kasi sa atin wala siyang binayaran na tax. Tapos sa US yon dapat mapakinabang niya ay nawala pa. Malaking halaga ang P223 million (It is sad to think that in Manila he did not pay any tax. But in the US what he should have was lost. P223 million is a big amount),” he said.
The balikbayan claimed his prize at the PCSO last Dec. 9 and had said then that he was planning to quit his job in New York and return to his native soil.
He was on a “sentimental journey” to the Philippines when he placed a P100 five Lucky Pick bets at a lotto outlet inside the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) in Olongapo City.
Source: Manila Bulletin
EDD K. USMAN
