If you win $1,200 or more on a bingo or slot machine, the casino must report the amount of cash winnings to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Casinos are also required to report the fair market value of prizes, such as cars or trips. Winners will be given a copy of Form W-2G showing winnings of $1,200 or more. So, if you won $5,000 on the blackjack table, you could only deduct $5,000 worth of losing bets, not the $6,000 you actually lost on gambling wagers during the tax year. And you cannot carry your.
Gambling and the Law®: By Professor I Nelson Rose
The Internal Revenue Code is unkind to winners -- and it doesn't much like losers, either. The federal government taxes gambling winnings at the highest rates allowed. So do the manystates and even cities that impose income taxes on their residents. If you make enough money, in a high-tax state like California or New York, the top tax bracket is about 50 percent. Out ofevery additional dollar you take in, through work or play, governments take 50 cents.
Of course, the tax-collector first has to find out that you have won. Congress and the Internal Revenue Service know gambling is an all-cash business and few winners indeed wouldvoluntarily report their good luck. So, statutes and regulations turn the gambling businesses, casinos, state lotteries, race tracks and even bingo halls, into agents for the IRS.
Big winners are reported to the IRS on a special Form W-2G. If winnings are to be split, as with a lottery pool, winners are reported on a Form 5754.
Pooling money to buy lottery tickets is common among employees and friends. But whether there are two or 200 in the pool, there is going to be only one winning ticket, and somebody has toturn it in. If you are that someone, make sure you fill out a Form 5754. If your share of a $5 million prize is $1 million, you do not want to be stuck with paying income tax on the entire $5million.
Gambling has become such big business that the IRS receives nearly four million Forms W-2G and 5754 each year. This tells the tax-collectors that nearly four million big winners are outthere, waiting to be taxed.
But the IRS does not always wait. The government wants to make sure it gets paid. What good does a W-2G do if the winner is a foreigner who is going to be in his own foreign country whenApril 15th rolls around?
So, the IRS not only wants reports filed, but often requires that a part of the winnings be withheld. As anyone who has a salary knows, withholding also allows the government to usetaxpayers' money for many months, without having to pay interest.
The withholding rate for nonresident aliens is 30%. Not coincidentally, the tax rate for nonresident aliens is also 30%. So, if a citizen of a foreign country wins $1 million cash at aslot machine in Las Vegas, he will find he is only paid $700,000. The remaining $300,000 is sent to the IRS. The foreign citizen is unlikely to ever file an income tax return, but the IRS getspaid in full anyway.
Citizens of foreign countries are also, of course, usually taxed by their own governments. So some countries have treaties with the U.S., which protects those foreigners from having topay the 30% withholding to the IRS.
U.S. citizens and resident aliens have it both better and worse than nonresident aliens. The withholding rate for gamblers living in American is only 28% (it was 20%, up to1992). Having the IRS take $28,000 out of a jackpot of $100,000 is painful. But, it can hurt even more when tax forms are filled out. There is no 30% maximum tax for people living in the U.S.,and really big winners often end up paying a lot more than 28% or 30%.
The one good news is Nevada casinos were also able to convince the IRS that they could not keep track of players at table games. They said that when a player cashes out for $7,000,they do not know whether he started with $25 or $25,000. So it is actually written into the law that there is no withholding or even reporting of big winnings to the IRS for blackjack,baccarat, craps, roulette or the big-6 wheel.
There is another general IRS rule that says anyone paying anyone else $600 in one year is supposed to file a report. The IRS has been going after casinos and cardrooms that runtournaments, forcing them to file tax reporting forms on grand prize winners. Here the IRS has the very good argument that the operator knows exactly how much a player has paid to enter thetournament and how much the finalists are given.
Is there anything a winning player can do to lower the bite of the income tax? And what about those who gamble and lose? Which is everybody, occasionally. The law does allow players totake gambling losses off their taxes, but only up to the amounts of their winnings.
Of course, if you win, say $135,000, you can take off all gambling losses, up to that amount. If you gambled away, say $65,000, you would only have to pay taxes on the remaining, let'ssee: $135,000 minus $65,000 equals $70,000. The tax on $70,000 is a lot less than the tax on $135,000.
Of course, you have the small problem of proving that you actually lost $65,000. Large winnings may be required to be reported to the IRS; large losses are not.
One former IRS Revenue Officer, who quit government to open his own small tax preparation firm, thought he found the answer. One of his clients won a share in a state lottery: $2.7million, paid out over 20 years in installments of about $135,000, before taxes. The winnings were reported, but the tax return claimed gambling losses of $65,000. The IRS decided that $65,000was a lot to lose, and it sent an agent to conduct an audit.
The tax preparer found a man with an extremely large collection of losing lottery tickets and made a deal: he would borrow 200,000 losing tickets for a month for $500. The losing ticketswere bound in stacks of 100 and shown to the IRS auditor: 45,000 instant scratch tickets, 5,000 other Massachusetts lottery tickets, and 16,000 losing tickets from racetracks throughout NewEngland. So many losing tickets, that it would have been physically impossible for one man to have made these bets. The New York Times called it, 'one of the more visibly inept efforts at taxfraud.' They pleaded guilty eight days after being indicted.
By the way, the man who rented the tickets was not charged. It's not a crime to collect losing lottery tickets, only to use them to try and cheat the IRS.
© Copyright 2009, all rights reserved worldwide. Gambling and the Law® is a registered trademark of Professor I Nelson Rose. Professor I Nelson Rose is recognized as one of the world’sleading experts on gambling law and is a consultant and expert witness for players, governments and industry. His latest books, INTERNET GAMING LAW (2nd edition just published), BLACKJACKAND THE LAW and GAMING LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS, are available through his website, www.GAMBLINGANDTHELAW.com.
Social security refers to the program which uses public funds to ensure a degree of economic security for the people. In the United States, it was established in 1935 which takes care of disability, old age, income for the elderly amongst others.
The taxes used to run the social security program is from both employers and employees. These taxes are not used primarily for the welfare of these employees and employers but for people who have attained retirement age or people who are eligible to benefit from the program. It is a cycle. People who can work how pay taxes for those who have worked before them and when the workers of how retire, those who are working then get to pay their own social security.
The program covers retirement pensions, disability insurance, survivor benefits, unemployment insurance. This means not everyone is entitled to social security benefits. The group of people who are entitled to it are between ages 65 and 67 all depends on the year you were born, you could be eligible at age 62 but applying at this age would reduce your social security benefits permanently, spouses. These are not the only requirements to qualify you for social security there are other important determinants for your eligibility. The number of years you worked is important too. You are assigned a number of credits for every year worked. For every $1360 earned, you are assigned one credit. What this means is depending on when you born, you would or would not be eligible for social security benefits.
For disability benefits, you might be discontinued from receiving it is you come into some money from say, the lottery, gambling etc. The receipt of this form of income does not necessarily have to be you directly, it could be your spouse. If the amount you win is more than $2000, sorry, but you do not qualify for social security benefits that month. If the amount is less, your social security benefits will be matched dollar to dollar with the amount. Whatever is left, you will be paid.
A great impact is felt on your tax returns when you win gambling than when you lose. The amount which you win gambling might seem small but the impact on your tax return are substantial. The tax which you have to pay would most likely override the amount won even your gambling losses on say, fruityslots.com,would not cover it.
You are required by law to report your gambling winnings. This is also done by the casino. Once a player exceeds the $1,200 mark on say, slots, a report is filed. Check your tax report and any amount won from gambling is on the first page.
The reporting of your gambling winnings actually cover all amounts won but in the event that the amount won exceeds the amounts listed below, they should be reported on your Form W-2G.
.$5,000 or more won in poker tournaments.
.$1,500 or more won in keno
.$1,200 or more won at slots or bingo
.$600 or more won at betting if the number of bets 300 or more. These amounts might be reduced when the wager placed by the winner is considered. It is required by law and the regulatory authorities that all amounts won gambling should be reported on your tax returns.
Gambling losses also have an impact on social security. The can be used to claim tax returns, but this applies only to when it is equal to the total amount of gambling winnings reported. They are claimed under itemized deduction. Remember that you can only successfully claim losses if all your gambling receipts and records are complete and in order. As this will be the evidence needed to make the ‘itemized deductions’. So, technicality your gambling losses are reclaimed through your gambling winnings but only to the extend that the amounts are the same.
According to the IRS, gambling winnings are taxable income. They only make provision for the deduction of losses. Gambling activities whose winnings will be taxed are games like poker, slots, bingo, racetrack games amongst others. Gambling winnings on a whole affect your social security hugely because whether you lose the same amount of money you win while gambling you would be paying a lot in taxes. When you win from gambling, the amount won is subjected to a 25% tax. There are certain higher amounts however which an income tax will be applied.
Most people especially retirees play the lottery. So they are concerned if this would affect their social security benefits. Well, the good news is that, your social security benefits is not affected by winning the lottery. This is because there is a social security earnings test conducted on your earnings. This worked this way. For every $2 earned, social security withholds $1 for amounts $17,640 and above as at 2019. This is applicable for workers who are not up to the full retirement age. Still, this bracket of people are concerned about the possibility of losing their benefits if they win the lottery. Good news, your benefits are safe. The lottery winnings would be taxed as required by law, but your benefits would be intact.
How Much Money Do You Have To Win Gambling To Pay Taxes
Gambling is fun. The possibilities for winnings are endless. You could actually win the jackpot and smile to the bank. The other arm to gambling is losing and to be honest, most people loss kore than they gain. For you as an individual who is on social security, the impact on your benefits is felt more than an individual who isn’t on social security. The soft landing you would have is the ability to report your losses when you report your winnings then the amount of losses would be deducted. This deduction isn’t carried out arbitrarily. Say, you lost $500 and won $600. The amount of losses deducted from your tax return would be $500. So, make sure you have all necessary information about your social security before you gamble.