Profit and tax

Is a profit tax-free?

Whether you have already won a lottery game or are still hoping for the great fortune – you have certainly already asked yourself what happens generally with the lottery win: do I have to pay taxes? This is probably the most frequent question. The revenue board do not get anything from the profit."

If you win the jackpot in the lottery, racing or in sports betting in Germany, you can keep the win completely – whether you won 10 Euro or 1 million Euro. This is because lottery winnings can not be assigned to any of the income tax categories that are relevant to taxation (EStG §2 paragraph 1, points 1 to 7). So the profit belongs to you alone!

Verschenken Sie Ihren Gewinn in Maßen

But: Taxes arise when a lot of money is given away ("gift tax"). Here it is profitable to keep the amounts just under the tax exempt amount. These allow 400,000 euros for your own children, for the spouse even 500,000 euros – calculated for a period of 10 years.

Interest is taxed

The revenue department also asks the lottery winners to pay taxes when interests from the profit have to be taxed ( "capital income tax"). This type of tax is retained by the banks and transferred directly to the taxation office. But there are also tax ecempt amounts, which amount to 801 euros for singles and 1602 euros for married couples. Anyone who receives more interest per year has to pay 25 percent of his income from interest to the tax office.That means in general that in the case of winnings no taxes have to be paid, but only on the interest. But if the profit is high enough, honestly everyone likes to pay taxes on the interest.

Foreign countries as a exeption

Special rules apply to the participation abroad: Those who participate in foreign gambling, such as EuroMillions in another country, have to adapt to the tax rules of the respective country. In Austria, lottery winnings do not have to be taxed, in Switzerland, on the other hand, they do.