According to Lottery officials, the individual winner from Sydney claimed the whole division one prize but might not even know it, because they weren’t registered and hadn’t come forward. “There are 100 million reasons why all Sydney players who had an entry in this week’s draw should check their ticket as soon as possible,” The Lott spokesperson Matt Hart said in a statement, according to media reports.
Lottery officials’ advise to winner
The Lott spokesperson advised the winner to call 131 868 as soon as possible to start claiming their prize. “Someone has become an overnight midweek multi-millionaire but possibly doesn’t know it yet,” he said. “We can’t wait for them to discover this winning news! Just imagine how $100 million might change your life and the lives of your nearest and dearest.”
Only six people in Australia have won a lotto prize of this size previously, 9 News reported. Another 3,056,245 winning entries across the other divisions took home more than $60 million in Thursday night’s draw.
Australian Taxation Office issues warning
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) warned about the potential implications of winning the lottery after one lucky person walked away as the sole jackpot winner.As the country closes in on tax time there are a few stipulations worth considering as to how a huge sum of cash like this can affect the winner. “You don’t need to declare your winnings to us, and you won’t pay tax on them,” the tax office said, according to Yahoo Finance. “But, any interest earned on the winnings will need to be included in your assessable income.”In the case of the sole winner of the jackpot, if the amount is kept sitting in a savings account with a 5 percent interest rate, an income of around $5 million will be generated in just one year. Come tax time next year, the lottery winner would have to pay tax on that big amount of money.
