P315-M lotto pot will still be tax-free

Tonight’s Grand Lotto winner will get to keep every cent of the estimated P315 million jackpot after all.

Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) chair Margarita Juico yesterday gave the assurance that lotto winnings will continue to be tax-free.

“For the record, there is neither a plan nor a proposal to tax lotto winnings,” Juico said.

“I assure the betting public that the lotto jackpot prices will continue to be tax-free. That is our mandate, that is our commitment,” she said.

The PCSO chair said that news reports that the state-run lottery agency was planning to impose a 20-percent withholding tax on lotto winnings were the result of “miscommunication.”

The reports were triggered by an announcement from presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda earlier this week that President Aquino had asked the PCSO to submit a draft bill of its proposal to tax lotto winnings. He said Juico had made the proposal.

Juico clarified in a statement yesterday that the proposal she made to Mr. Aquino last week was to have the PCSO exempted from paying taxes and for the Palace to consider lowering the documentary stamp tax levied by the Bureau of Internal Revenue on PCSO sales from 10 to 5 percent.

She said the media reports about taxing lotto winnings may have been confused with the comments she made about the Filipino-American balikbayan who won the P721-million jackpot last year, and who was then levied a P200 million tax by the US Internal Revenue Service. The balikbayan converted his winnings into dollars and paid the tax to the IRS.

Still no winner

Juico said that following the incident of the balikbayan winner, talk about taxing foreigners who win the lotto while here on a visit came up in informal conversations among PCSO officials.

Meanwhile, after 41 draws and still no winner, the jackpot prize of the 6/55 Grand Lotto draw is expected to reach P315 million today, after no one hit the winning combination of 12-19-30-41-42-52 in last Wednesday’s draw.

The pot money was recorded at P297,916,131.60 with no winner. But 30 bettors, who just missed winning the jackpot by one number, were rewarded with P150,000 each.

The highest prize on record of P741 million was won in Nov. 29, 2010 by the New York-based balikbayan who bought the winning ticket while on vacation in Olongapo City.

The next biggest lotto jackpot was P347 million for the Super Lotto 6/49 draw on Feb. 22, 2009 where two winners shared the prize. A 61-year-old worker from Novaliches, Quezon City, won the third biggest jackpot worth P249 million in the Super Lotto draw in August 2009.

There is a one-in-a-29 million chance of picking the winning combination in the Grand Lotto but the ticket sales rise along with the bettors’ excitement once the jackpot prize breaches the P100-million mark, said PCSO general manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II.

Draws are slated every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

“The prize will continue to be conveniently tax-free,” said Rojas.