Items related to Tax Help for Gamblers: Poker & Other Casino Games
Synopsis
Everything You Need to Know About Gambling and Taxes
The complete tax implications of winning and losing at gambling are pretty much a mystery to accountants, gamblers, and even the Internal Revenue Service itself. The IRS offers surprisingly few details to guide gamblers through the tax maze. Furthermore, what the IRS does say is often general, vague, open to individual interpretation, and contradictory; IRS publications and personnel often leave you with more questions than answers.
Tax Help for Gamblers deals with the innumerable nuances and gray areas of gambling and taxes, including changes implemented in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. It covers all the whys and wherefores of this complex subject, such as tax-code specifics, record-keeping, filing your tax return, state-tax considerations, audits, and other tax problems―often citing relevant court cases to serve as a foundation for your conclusions. Numerous charts and forms help you with the practical application of the information.
This book is for recreational and professional gamblers, low and high rollers, and machine and table-game players. It’s applicable to casino, online, international, and cruise-ship gambling; video poker; live poker; and daily fantasy sports.
Do you know the answers to these questions: When must you show official ID in a casino? When must you show your Social Security card in a casino? How should you report the W-2Gs and 1099s a casino issues you? Do you need a gambling diary if you have win/loss statements from all the casinos where you’ve played? Are you safe from an IRS audit if you’ve received no paperwork from a casino? Must you account for gambling wins on your tax return if you’re a net loser for the year? Can you get a refund for taxes withheld from a jackpot hit in a state in which you aren’t a resident? If you don’t know, you should. And you will by the time you’re finished with Tax Help for Gamblers, now in its fourth edition.
Whether you’re a do-it-yourself tax filer or you use a tax professional, Tax Help for Gamblers is an indispensable guide to staying on the right side of the taxman.
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About the Author
Jean Scott is the author of five books in the Frugal Gambler series. She’s a writer, speaker, and television personality, a veritable spokesperson for low-rolling gamblers nationwide. She lives in Las Vegas with her husband, Brad.
Marissa Chien is an Enrolled Agent and the president of her own firm, Advantage Tax Plus, Inc. She’s a graduate of the University of Michigan and has approximately 300 individual and corporate clients, including poker champions and professional gamblers.
Russell Fox is an Enrolled Agent and is the founder and senior partner of Clayton Financial and Tax, a tax preparation and representation firm. He received his BS from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MBA from the University of Southern California. He is the author of one book on taxes and co-author of three books on poker.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
“Paying taxes on my gambling wins? You’ve got to be kidding. Sure, sometimes I win, but my losses are always much larger than my wins by the end of the year. So I don’t have to mess with it on my federal or state tax returns.”
Wrong! You probably should “mess with it,” especially if you hold any of the following common, but mistaken, beliefs:
- I can lump together all my wins and losses for the year and, if I have a net loss, I don’t need to put wins or losses on my income tax returns. After all, I didn’t have any gambling income.
- The IRS can’t “catch” me, even if I win a lot of money gambling, as long as it’s done slowly over a considerable period of time in different gambling venues and I get no official forms from a casino like a W-2G or 1099.
- Federal and state tax agencies know most gamblers lose over the long term, so they aren’t very interested in auditing them.
- If I do get a few W-2Gs, I can just count that total as my gambling income for the year and be safe in an IRS audit.
- If I gamble online, the IRS doesn’t get any records of this, so I don’t have to report any of my winnings.
- If I gamble on a cruise ship in waters three miles from U.S. soil, I don’t need to report my winnings.
- If I play poker only in home games, I don’t have to report my winnings.
- Winnings from illegal gambling are not taxable.
Before we go any further, let me emphasize: It’s not the purpose of this book to moralize about reporting or not reporting your gambling wins and losses. However, now that casinos have sprung up all over the country and, as a result, more and more people gamble, the IRS is becoming more interested in this area of potential under-reporting. If you report any W-2Gs or don’t include them when you’ve been issued them, it’s more likely you might be asked by the IRS to provide additional details of your gambling. And it’s more likely that you might be questioned about gambling if you come to the attention of the IRS for other reasons, even a routine audit.
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- PublisherHuntington Press
- Publication date2019
- ISBN 10 1944877312
- ISBN 13 9781944877316
- BindingPaperback
- LanguageEnglish
- Edition number4
- Number of pages240
- Rating
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