Enter any advertised jackpot and pick a state. We show both the one-time cash lump sum and the full 30-year annuity side by side — after federal tax, state tax, and the per-year top-bracket adjustment.
Three steps to a take-home estimate:
Type the annuity jackpot shown on powerball.com. You can use shorthand like $100M or 1B.
The state rate is loaded from our open tax-rate file. Nine states do not tax Powerball winnings.
We always show both: cash lump sum (≈60% of advertised, taxed once this year) and the real 30-year annuity (30 payments escalating 5% per year, each taxed independently).
The advertised jackpot is the total of 30 graduated annuity payments. The lump sum is what the lottery would invest today to fund those 30 payments — roughly 46–62% of the advertised number, depending on Treasury rates.
Over 95% of grand-prize winners since 2003 have taken the cash. Reasons: immediate liquidity for estate planning and investment, the belief that a diversified portfolio will outperform the annuity's effective yield after tax, and full control of the money in case of death (the annuity does continue to heirs but loses flexibility).
The annuity's nominal total is always larger than the cash value, and the per-year federal top-bracket exemption ($640,600 in 2026) applies 30 times instead of once — saving roughly $2.5M of federal tax over the schedule on a large jackpot. The 5% annual escalator also acts as built-in inflation protection.
Both projections ignore investment returns, inflation, and time value of money. Always consult a CPA and an estate attorney before claiming a Powerball prize.
Three: the advertised jackpot (you can type $100M or 1B), the state of residence, and the payout option (cash lump sum vs. 30-year annuity). It returns gross payout, federal withholding, estimated top-bracket federal tax, state tax, total tax, take-home, and effective tax rate in seconds.
No. The calculator applies the headline state rate only. New York City residents add 3.876% city tax and Yonkers residents add 1.477%. Treat the calculator result as a floor for NYC / Yonkers winners and consult a CPA for an exact number.
Federal withholding is a flat 24%. Anything above the 2026 top-bracket threshold (~$640,600 for single filers) is also subject to the remaining 13% that pushes the top rate to 37%. That is why the effective rate climbs as the jackpot grows.
60% is a long-run approximation the Multi-State Lottery Association publishes for modelling; the actual cash value ratio on any specific draw can range from roughly 46% to 62% depending on interest rates at the time. Use the latest cash value printed on powerball.com for the most precise figure.