Solon wants lotto victor to have say on use of winnings tax

With the “live” lotto jackpot prize topping the P1.1-billion mark, a House lawmaker has proposed that future winners be allowed to have a say on how the government should spend the taxes collected on their winnings.

Under Aangat Tayo party-list Rep. Harlin Neil Abayon III’s proposed measure, which he filed on Tuesday, any winner of a lotto prize over P10,000 may give instructions to the national government as to how the 20-percent tax on the prize money would be used.

‘Empowered winner’

House Bill No. 8418, or the Lotto Major Winner Empowerment Act, states that the lotto winner shall be “empowered to determine and specify in a notarized letter addressed to the President of the Philippines, the public school, public hospital, government scholarship or educational assistance program, government project, or barangay to which the final tax shall be allocated and spent.”

Abayon said that under the current law, it was up to the national government how it would spend the tax from winnings.

“My idea is to give back to the lotto jackpot winner the right to decide how the entire jackpot is spent, but the final tax still goes to the government,” he said.