The winners of the ‘jackpot’ of the Christmas Lottery that will be held tomorrow, Sunday, December 22, will have to pay taxes for their prize to the Public Treasury, which will keep 72,000 euros from each tenth.

All prizes organized by the State Lottery and Betting Society (Selae), including the special Christmas draw, that exceed 40,000 euros are subject to the payment of a special tax, as recalled by the Tax Agency on its website.

This tax is applied in the form of withholding, that is, Selae itself will deduct the corresponding tax from the prize – whether it is a tenth, fraction or lottery coupon – at the time of payment, so that the winners will not have to carry out any procedure. additional.

In accordance with current regulations, all prizes less than 40,000 euros are exempt from the special lottery tax, while those that exceed that amount, in addition to identifying the winner, will have to pay a rate of 20% on the part that exceeds this figure.

Thus, for example, if the ‘big one’ wins, endowed with 400,000 euros, the first 40,000 euros are exempt and tax is paid on the remaining 360,000 euros, so that the Treasury keeps 72,000 euros and the winner with 328,000 euros.

In the same way, for a second prize of 125,000 euros, the non-exempt 85,000 euros would be taxed, so that the Treasury keeps 17,000 euros and the winner with 108,000 euros.

Those winners of a third prize (50,000 euros) will have to pay taxes of 2,000 euros and will keep 48,000 euros, while the rest of the prizes are exempt for not reaching 40,000 euros. The technicians of the Ministry of Finance (Gestha) estimate that the Treasury will raise 175.6 million with the Christmas draw if the first three prizes are distributed.

The Tax Agency explains that, when the prizes are shared with friends or family, the 40,000 euros exempt from taxation must be distributed proportionally to each person’s participation.

Whoever is in charge of this task will appear as the sole beneficiary or collection manager and must be able to prove to the Tax Agency that the distribution has been made and identify all the winners.

Since 2013, prizes from State Lotteries, autonomous communities, the National Organization of the Spanish Blind (ONCE), the Spanish Red Cross and similar European entities that exceed a certain threshold are taxed at a rate of 20%.

This threshold has varied over the years: it was 2,500 euros until 2017 and then went to 10,000 euros in 2018, 20,000 euros in 2019 and 40,000 euros from 2020. In 2023, the special lottery tax collected 347 million euros.

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The Treasury will keep 72,000 euros from each tenth of the Christmas ‘big money’