Whilst millions of Spaniards dream of even a small windfall (as there are thousands of prizes) the State knows that it is definitely going to rake in literally hundreds of millions of euros, both in unclaimed prizes as well as the tax on prizes brought in by the Rajoy Government – before, no tax was paid on lottery prizes – not even during the dictatorship.

If the first three top prizes are claimed, then the State will take 156.5-million euros in tax, on these prizes alone. That’s 123.8m euros on the First Prize, 29.2m euros on the Second and 3.4m on the Third.

As for the prize money itself, every holder of a decimo (20-euro ticket) will win 400,000 euros if they ae holding the top-winning ticket, of which 72,000 euros Hacienda will snap up. When you take into account that there are 172 series for each number (ten decimos to a number) that’s where the 123.8m figure comes from.

And just in case you were thinking that you could dodge Hacienda by using one of the lottery-winner insurances which will pay out the equivalent amount that you lose to Hacienda… the insurance pay out has to be declared in your income tax returns, so you’ll pay tax on that as well..

Merry Christmas and God Bless Rajoy!

(News: Spain)