Powerball
Powerball Tax Calculator
A Powerball jackpot is paid either as one cash payment or as 30 graduated payments over 29 years, each 5% larger than the last. Both are taxed as ordinary income in the year received — enter the advertised jackpot and cash value to compare what each leaves you.
Powerball jackpot — results
Lump sum · take-home
60% kept of $192,400,000
Annuity · 30 payments
Year 1 $4,262,492 → year 30 $17,389,187
| Cash received | $192,400,000 |
|---|---|
| Federal income tax | −$71,138,000 |
| Tax to Pennsylvania | $0 |
| Pennsylvania tax | −$5,906,680 |
| Local income tax | $0 |
| You keep | $115,355,320 |
| Federal withholding (24%) | −$46,176,000 |
|---|---|
| State withholding | −$5,906,680 |
| Check you receive | $140,317,320 |
| Still owed when you file | $24,962,000 |
Data: IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 · state agencies, verified · what this leaves out
Preset: the $467 million annuity / $192.4 million cash estimate the Texas Lottery posted for the October 5, 2026 drawing. Replace both with the figures for your drawing.
How the Powerball annuity is built
The Iowa Lottery’s Powerball page describes the annuity as 30 payments over 29 years, increasing by 5 percent each year; the Texas Lottery’s game page adds that the payments are not equal, each one greater than the previous year’s. Because the payments must add up to the advertised jackpot, the first payment is the jackpot × 0.05 ÷ (1.05³⁰ − 1), about 1.5% of the jackpot, and the last is about 6.2%. For a $200 million jackpot that is roughly $3.0 million in year one and $12.4 million in year thirty.
Growing payments matter for tax. In a state with a flat rate the annuity’s state tax is simply the rate times each payment; in a graduated state the early, smaller payments may sit below a surtax line that the later payments cross. The schedule in the calculator shows tax year by year.
Match 5 and Power Play prizes
Below the jackpot, Powerball prizes are fixed cash amounts everywhere except California, which pays them pari-mutuel. The powerball.com prize chart lists $1 million for matching all five white balls ($2 million with any Power Play multiplier), at odds of 1 in 11,688,053.52; the Texas Lottery notes that a Power Play Match 5 is set at $2,000,000 regardless of the multiplier drawn. A $2,000,000 Power Play prize to a Texan with no other income leaves $1,310,000 after federal tax. The $1 million prize after federal and state tax, single filer, no other income:
| Bought and living in | Federal | State + local | Kept |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | $320,000 | $0 | $680,000 |
| Florida | $320,000 | $0 | $680,000 |
| Pennsylvania | $320,000 | $30,700 | $649,300 |
| North Carolina | $320,000 | $39,900 | $640,100 |
| New Jersey | $320,000 | $74,574 | $605,426 |
| New York | $320,000 | $68,500 | $611,500 |
| California | $320,000 | $0 | $680,000 |
California’s row reflects its exemption for California Lottery prizes; New York’s reflects the state’s recapture of lower brackets once income passes $107,650. Pennsylvania withholds its 3.07% at claim, New Jersey 8% on a prize this size.
Cash value is set by the pool, not by the IRS
The cash option is the money actually in the jackpot pool; the advertised jackpot is what that cash would buy as a 30-year annuity at current interest rates. That is why the cash share moves from drawing to drawing and why this calculator asks for both numbers instead of assuming a ratio. The tax rules, by contrast, are fixed for the year: 24% federal withholding on prizes over $5,000, and brackets from Rev. Proc. 2025-32 for the final bill.
Mega Millions works the same way with a different ticket price and its own annuity — see the Mega Millions tax calculator — and the trade-off between the two payout options is worked through in lump sum vs annuity.
Verified · Sources: Iowa Lottery and Texas Lottery Powerball pages, powerball.com prize chart, IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, IRS W-2G instructions.