Thomas v. United States

OPINION & ORDER

MARBLEY, District Judge.

Plaintiff Roy V. Thomas won the Ohio Lottery Super Lotto Jackpot, worth almost nine million dollars, in the December 12, 1992 drawing. The State of Ohio took about six weeks to process his claim, and Mr. Thomas received his money on January 28, 1993. Until 1993, the IRS taxed prize-winnings at a rate of twenty percent, but beginning in January, 1993, it instituted a rate of twenty-eight percent. Plaintiffs Roy Thomas and his wife Eloise 1 now argue, under the “economic benefit” doctrine, that the prize should have been included as income for 1992, rather…