On January 1, 2014, Revenu Québec's harmonized its tax treatment of any prize or award received by a lottery ticket vendor further to the distribution or sale of a winning ticket with that of the Revenue Canada Agency. The term “vendor” refers to both ticket retailers and distributors of tickets to retailers.

Any prizes or awards received or to be received after December 31, 2013, by a lottery ticket vendor further to the distribution or sale of a winning ticket must be included in the calculation of the vendor's business income for the purposes of the Taxation Act. Such prizes or awards constitute business income even if the amount or value of the prizes or awards is based on the volume of tickets sold or distributed (as in the case of an incentive bonus).

Prizes or awards received by vendors are therefore treated in the same way as income from the sale or distribution of lottery tickets.

However, prizes or awards received before January 1, 2014, by a lottery ticket vendor that sold or distributed a winning ticket are non-taxable lottery winnings.

For more information, see the interpretation bulletin Lotteries (IMP.293-1/R2) (PDF – 62.3 KB).