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The New Jersey Lottery said the winning ticket in the Tuesday, Mar. 26 drawing was purchased at ShopRite Wine & Spirits on Route 66 in Neptune. No winner had come forward publicly as of Friday, Mar. 29, and state law allows large lottery jackpot winners to remain anonymous.
The winning numbers were 7, 11, 22, 29, and 38, and the MegaBall was 4.
The final prize from the $1,128,000 jackpot will heavily depend on whether the winner takes the cash option or annuity. The cash option would pay $536.6 million in a lump sum, according to Mega Millions.
The annuity consists of escalating payments over a 30-year period. At a news conference on Wednesday, Mar. 27, NJ Lottery executive director James Carey said the Mega Millions winner chose the annuity but also mentioned that many jackpot winners tend to prefer the cash option.
If the winner were to take the $536.6 million cash option, they would first have to pay 24 percent in federal taxes, according to the NJ Lottery winner's guide. That would mean about $128,784,000 would go to the IRS, leaving roughly $407,816,000 for the winner.
From there, the state would take its turn withholding eight percent of the original lump sum. That would give New Jersey about $42,928,000 in taxes.
The tax payments would leave the lotto winner with a final total of roughly $364,888,000. That's about one-third of the original jackpot and roughly $171,712,000 going to state and federal taxes.
The annuity's tax process would be a little different, according to lotto tracking website USA Mega. Federal taxes would be taken at a 37 percent marginal rate and 10.75 percent would be withheld for state taxes.
That means the pre-tax payment of more than $16.9 million would end up as roughly $8.9 million in the first year. The payments would rise by five percent each year.
In the 30th year, the final pre-tax payment of more than $69.9 million would become more than $36.6 million after taxes. Under the annuity, the winner would receive about $590,634,000 — more than half of the original jackpot — and pay roughly $537,366,000 in taxes.
The $1.13 billion jackpot was the largest lottery prize in New Jersey's history.
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