You still pay taxes on that as well. It’s just the taxes are also spread out over the full time payout.

If you take the cash option you’ll get about 50% of the total and then have to pay taxes on that, which federally will be something like 35% of what’s left, for a total of ~67.5% off the top.

A good rule of thumb if you’re considering how much you would walk away with in America is to assume that before state taxes you would get about a third of whatever number is listed.

For instance right now it’s like 550 million, you would walk home with about 190 million after taxes before state taxes.

Your state will probably take another 15% of the total if your state charges state taxes, so if you live in a state tax state you would walk home with about 137.5 million, or a touch over 25% of the original total.

Of course, your mileage may vary and you may have access to tax benefits that I am not aware of.

If you end up winning a large lottery in America I highly recommend that you speak to a qualified financial planner and tax professional and not just trust some asshole on the internet.