Whoever wins tonight’s €27.5m lottery jackpot will have to pay asset tax of around €500,000 over 2010, even though the money won’t be placed on their bank account until 2011, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Friday.

The draw will be made in the ‘dying seconds’ of 2010, meaning the winner is technically in possession of the money, the paper says.
The paper bases its claim on legal action taken by the winner of the December 31, 2004 lottery. He went to court in an effort to avoid the extra tax but lost.