Spain's El Gordo Lottery Tax Breakdown

 

This years 'El Gordo de Navidad' Christmas lottery draw will be the first such draw to see the winners of prizes over the value of €2,500 pay 20% taxes to the treasury.

Winners of larger sums will also be able to take advantage of the first €2,500 being tax free.

Despite the introduction of the tax, the prize fund has remained unchanged - therefore a winning €400,000 'Decimo' Should be devalued to €320,5000 once the appropriate taxes have been subtracted.

The taxes associated with any winning cash prize are deducted automatically by Loterias y Apuestas del Estado, with the balance of the sum paid to the lucky winner. The first

In the event of there being two or more parties with a share in a winning ticket the tax liability will be split proportionately.

With only 100,000 tickets printed, each with 180 copies, each copy has 10 shares, known as "Decimas", this adds up to a total of 180 Million decimas - the prize fund is established way in advance, and it is also possible to ensure that the winnings are distributed more equally than the UK's National Lottery.

With the top prize being €4 million - to be divided by the number of Decimas owned (usually 10 induviduals, but in some cases one person can own all 10) - the odds of winning the jackpot are 1:100'000. The odds of winning any of the prizes are 1:7.

There is just 2 weeks to go until the €2.24 Bln prize draw on December 22nd.