Income and Investments Gambling Winnings Tax (How Much You Will Pay For Winning?) Read the Article Open Share Drawer Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Written by Ginita Wall Published Mar 3, 2023 - [Updated Dec 27, 2023] 3 min read Reviewed by Katharina Reekmans, Enrolled Agent Most people don’t think about taxes on their way to a racetrack or casino, but what might seem like nothing more than the chance to win some extra money actually has some tax implications. As is often the case, federal and state governments single out casino winnings for unique taxes of their own. Here is what you need to know about how gambling affects your taxes: How Much You Win Matters It’s important for you to know the thresholds that require income reporting by the payer. Winnings in the following amounts must be reported to the IRS by the payer: $600 or more at a horse track (if that is 300 times your bet) $1,200 or more at a slot machine or bingo game $1,500 or more in keno winnings (minus the amount you bet) $5,000 or more in poker tournament winnings (minus the amount you bet or buy-in price) Get started now All of these require giving the payer your Social Security number, as well as filling out IRS Form W2-G to report the full amount won. In most cases, the casino will take 24 percent off your winnings for IRS gambling taxes before paying you. Not all gambling winnings in the amounts above are subject to IRS Form W2-G. W2-G forms are not required for winnings from table games such as blackjack, craps, baccarat, and roulette, regardless of the amount. Note that this does not mean you are exempt from paying taxes or reporting the winnings on your taxes. Any and all gambling winnings must be reported to the IRS. It only means that you do not have to fill out Form W2-G for these particular table-based games. Reporting Smaller Winnings Even if you do not win as much as the amounts above, you are still legally obligated to claim your winnings at tax-time. You also need to report any awards or prize money you won during the year. Yes, even if you only win $10 sports gambling, you still technically have to report it (even if the casino didn’t). Your gambling income also includes the fair market value of prizes such as cars or trips. Gambling income plus your job income (and any other income) equals your total income. Fortunately, you do not necessarily have to pay taxes on all your winnings. Instead, if you itemize your deductions, you can claim your losses up to the amount of your winnings. But the amount of losses you deduct can’t be more than the amount of gambling income you reported on your tax return. *Note, under the tax reform law, the gambling loss limitation was modified. Prior to the tax reform law, taxpayers’ costs (like transportation and admission fees) could be claimed regardless of winnings. But beginning with the tax year 2018 (the taxes filed in 2019), all expenses in connection with gambling, not just gambling losses, are limited to gambling winnings. What About State Taxes? In addition to federal taxes payable to the IRS, many state governments tax gambling income as well. Each state has its own unique formulas and rules for gambling income, and some levy no gambling taxes at all. Some states charge a flat percentage, while others base the state tax on how much you won. TurboTax Has You Covered Don’t worry about knowing these tax rules. Meet with a TurboTax Full Service expert who can prepare, sign and file your taxes, so you can be 100% confident your taxes are done right. Start TurboTax Live Full Service today, in English or Spanish, and get your taxes done and off your mind. Get started now Previous Post Tax Benefits Changing for Tax Year 2022 Next Post The Tax Deadline is Approaching: TurboTax Shares What You Need… Written by Ginita Wall More from Ginita Wall 489 responses to “Gambling Winnings Tax (How Much You Will Pay For Winning?)” « Older Comments Newer Comments » If you Itemize your deductions the program ask if you received a state tax refund. If you did not recieve a state tax refund but did when money gambling from another state but did not receive a 1099-g for those winnings how do you claim it on your taxes? Reply Hello, For Table Games, do you need to report winning every hand that you bet and list the loss for every hand that you lost? Do you just report net winning or loss on daily net winning or loss? Reply Hi Marty, No, gambling winnings are shown as a total, generally by the payer (casino etc.), for the year. Each payer should report any winnings to you on a Form W-2G, which you enter in TurboTax. Any cash winnings are entered after the W-2G interviews as a total amount for the year. Then you enter a total for the year’s gambling losses up to the amount of the winnings you had. You cannot deduct more than the winnings you enter. Note that the IRS only allows you to take gambling losses as an itemized deduction, which means you only benefit by the deduction if you itemize deductions (TurboTax will help you with this). Gambling losses won’t be able to show up for you if your standard deduction is larger than your itemized deductions. Be sure you have receipts, tickets, statements or other records showing your winnings and losses, so you can verify any gambling losses you claim. Reply Running Turbo tax deluxe, I have run thru my income and got to the W2Gs. Several with an indian casino, totaling $171,800.00. The win loss stmt says we lost more that won. I entered all the w2Gs and took the deduction for the amount won. However, the tax (shown at top of program page) before entry of the W2Gs went up from about 6k to 60k then back to about 8K after the $171,800.00 deduction. Did I pop into some sort of alternative minium tax situation? Total income is from work, gambling and pensions is about $357,000. Of which 171,800 was reported on W2Gs. Reply Hi Hank, Yes that is possible. Income over $51,900 if you’re single and $80,800 for married filing jointly is subject to AMT and your itemized deductions are limited at income of $250,000 if you’re single and $300,000 if married filing jointly. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply If there were not enough deductions otherwise, the gaming losses forces itemization of deductions, thus increasing taxable income by the difference of nongaming deductions and the $12,200 standard deduction. I won 8,000 at a casino. My gambling losses were more but I was only allowed to put in 8,000 losses but it didn’t affect my bottom line?? What I had to pay after I put in winnings was exactly the same after I put in losses…how is that? It’s always zeroed out before. A wash. Reply P.s. My husband says there is a “bug” in the software Reply Ok, then I would need to be able to see the whole tax return to figure out if there is a bug. Unfortunately, I cannot do that on this forum. From the facts given, the $8,000 in losses is not affecting your bottom line because you do not have enough in Schedule A itemized deductions to beat the Standard Deduction for Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) of $12,200. Reply Yes we have over 17,000 in itemized deductions I have the exact same issue. I checked TurboTax numbers on completed return and all are good except the bottom line Taxable Income is $8K too high, which attributed to my $8K W-2Gs winnings. My Sked A Itemized deductions amount to over $37K (MFJ) and TurboTax confirms Itemized deduction election. For some reason TurboTax has included the Gambling winnings into my Taxable Income (first year I’ve seen this happen). I’m filing a federal tax return, a Wisconsin resident tax return, and a non-resident Louisiana tax return (because of a gambling win there). The federal return clearly includes all sources of income. The Louisiana return clearly includes only the gambling win from LA, as that is my only income from that state. My question is about my primary state of residence (WI)…. do I include only income from WI or do I have to include the LA gambling win also? Reply If I have 50 W-Gs, do I have to enter each one individually, or just put the total amount combined? Reply Hi Susan, You should put each one in separately to avoid math calculation errors especially since TurboTax adds everything up for you. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply Thank you Lisa. Where on turbo tax do I claim my gambling loss. I won $1800 then paid state tax only. I then gambled back all but $500. How to I tell turbo tax ? Thank you Reply I live in California and I won $1702 in Louisiana. Do I have to file taxes in Louisiana also? Reply Yes, you will file a non-resident return for Louisiana in addition to your federal and California returns. Reply hi say im a 13 teen year old who signed up on a poker site with my moms ssn and info behind her back and won over 24,000 in 3 months and cashed 2 in a 100k guar tournament what should he do Reply Matt, First and foremost you need to inform your Mother. The IRS will see this huge amount of extra income and will come after her. Before you get too in debt with this on line gambling, you need to tell your Mother. The IRS catches this very quickly. Reply Hi, I was in Las Vegas back in November 2013, I stayed at the MGM Grand. I was playing the slots on a Saturday night when I hit $25,000. When the man came and started to explain my winnings to me I was shocked. The man told me that they will be taking 30% equals $7500. How or do I get any of this money back?? My full time residence is in Canada. Reply Doud: The max is 28% in Vegas. You will not get any money back, it goes to the IRS. The remainder of the 2% the casino took it. That’s not legal. Reply My win loss statement says that my estimated tracked cash in is $2,927,972.40, My estimated tracked cash out is $2,371,093.77, my estimated tracked jackpot is $498,908.54, my estimated (net loss) is ($57,970.09). I had taxes of $16,569 withheld from winnings. 90% of my winnings went right back into the machines. But now my tax preparer is saying I owe $161,000 in federal and $ 42, 000 to state. Does this sound right to you? Reply Hi Janet, Without seeing your other income sources it’s hard to tell. If you had other income, it has to be added to your gambling winnings, which puts you in a higher tax bracket. Your gambling losses reduce your taxable income, but it is not a dollar for dollar deduction from your tax liability. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply If someone had to gamble at a casino to win points so I could get a ticket to enter drawing can I claim my losses gambling. They ended up winning the drawing and got a car that had a fmv of 55,000 according to casino. They sold it for 45,000 and got a 1099 misc for 55,000. Since they had to gamble to get the drawing tickets to win …can they claim their losses against it. You had to play during the month of October to earn the drawing tickets and they drew the winners at the end of the month. So can you claim losses ..if not, can you just claim what you sold car for? Reply Hi Heather, Yes you can claim losses up to your gambling winnings if you itemize your deductions. TurboTax will help you accurately claim your losses. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply Although many casinos give a 1099 instead of W-2G, he car’s “value” should be gaming win. #1. How do you enter it if you have a 1099? #2. How do you determine car’s “correct’ value? Where on turbo tax do you enter your gabbling loss against your winning? I paid state taxes on my $1800 winnings but played back all but $500. Please direct me to that area of itemization on tax turbo. Thank you Hi Judy, You should go to the federal taxes tab, itemized deductions, and you would enter them under miscellaneous itemized deductions. Please keep in mind if you do not have itemized deductions over the standard deduction of $6,100 if single, $12,200 if married filing jointly, then you won’t get your itemized deductions which include your gambling losses. TurboTax will accurately figure out which deductions you’re eligible for based on your answers. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis I live in Ohio and won $32,000 over the entire year. The casinos were in Indiana and they took out Indiana state taxes. I lost as much as I won and my federal taxes are done and good. I however do not understand the means of filing Indiana non-resident tax forms to try and get back what I had to pay in Ohio state taxes. Where do I list the income on the Indiana state tax forms? I do not see a section for just gambling. Do I list it in the income section? I recently won $4700 in vegas on a slotmachine I was taxed right then and there 28% for federal taxes but I live in California so I know I will owe state taxes come next year does anyone know what percent I will end up having to pay come that time?? Reply Just to be clear, you were not taxed 28%. The casino withheld 28%. You may get that entire amount back when you file your taxes. You may not owe CA state income tax on that $4700. It will depend on how much your total taxable income is for the year. Reply No I paid 28% in taxes I got the w4 showing it was paid straight to fed but 0 to state but thanks I’m sure I’ll still ended up paring some state next year just not sure how much Again, they withheld 28%. You didn’t pay 28%. Depending on your tax situation, you may get the entire withholding back. My son won 7000.00 on a slot machine and is a college student also not employed. Will he have to pay taxes on that? Reply My son won 7000.00 on a slot machine and is a college student also not employed. Will he have to pay taxes on that? Also he lives in Oklahoma. Reply I am filing my Dad’s return for WA and if he won gambling winnings from Louisiana do I need to file a LA return as well? LA does take out state taxes on winnings. Reply So, I live in California and was in Colorado over the summer in 2012 where I won a small casino jackpot of $1684. They gave me a Form W-2G form when they paid me and I just completed my taxes using Turbo Tax Federal and CA State and the program is telling me Ihave to file a whole separate State return for Colorado. I get that I likely have to pay state taxes on this but what are my options instead of buying a Turbo Tax State program for $40 – for such a small amount of income? Reply You can obtain the Colorado state imcome tax form from their website, and file that return on your own. Better to pay the $40, and just do it through Turbo Tax. Reply Recently had my win/loss statement of -15,127.75 and total winning of 14,000. do i still owe taxes? some of them had fed and state taken out already and 4 are not?? so do i still need to pay taxes?? thanks in advance Reply On your Federal return, you will list your gambling losses on your Schedule A, and you will put your total winnings of $14,000 on Line 21 of your Form 1040. You can only deduct $14,000 in losses against the $14K in winnings. You cannot deduct the remaining loss ($15,127.75 – $14K = 1,127.75 loss). Do you owe taxes? First depends on what state you live in. For example, Michigan does not allow you to deduct gambling losses. You pay on the $14,000 in winnings. On your Federal return, the important test is whether your gambling logbook will hold up on audit. If you have followed the rules for keeping the logbook, then you should be able to deduct $14,000 in gambling losses against the $14,000 in gambling winnings with no worries. Your total Federal tax due will determine whether or not you get back your Federal withholding on your gambling winnings. Reply True that on Michigan. They are squeezing the little guy more and more with higher fees and ridiculous tax laws like the one referring to no deduction on the Michigan return for gambling losses. Oh but there is a huge budget surplus in the state. Of course there is. Rob the middle class into poverty. I hate this state with a passion and pimp them any and every chance I get. F*&^^%wads. Yes James that is true on the Michigan gambling losses point. For the last 10 years or so the State has been nickel and diming the middle class any and every way they can. Hey, what comes around goes around. I live in Ohio, I won a total of 8,000 in lottery winning, what would be my tax amount? Reply I won $6000 on a slot machine but lost more than $6000, do i still have to report the w-2g on my tax return. when i put it on my return and put my losses in the deductions, my return is still $900 less than what it would be without putting the w-2g in. Reply Maria, your losses can’t not exceed your winnings when you file for IRS. Reply Winstar casino reported to the IRS over 100,000 dollars more than I actually won or signed for. All my tax/legal papers were lost in storage. I need info and guidance on how to fight this fraudulent claim and tax lein. Do I contact CPA? Tax lawyer? IRS? Please advise Reply I am a senior and I collect SSI in New York City, I purchase a ticket hit on some numbers and the value of my winnings is a little over 500.00. Will I get penalized in and way if I go to claim my winnings as far as the SSI is concerned? Reply Hi Irene, Not penalized, but depending on how much social security you receive the $500 taxable income could make some of your social security taxable. Please see our post on how social security is taxed http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/2012/02/13/how-social-security-income-is-taxed/ Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply My wife just won $2100 at a casino in Florida. She did not have any taxes taken out. We live in Michigan, so I am assuming I have to claim this on next year’s Michigan tax return and will have to fill out a Florida tax return. Is this correct? I do know I have to claim on federal. Reply Ok John, let’s break it down. I will assume that you and your wife are filing a joint return (MFJ). On your Federal return, you will claim the $2100 on Line 21 of Form 1040. If you are able to itemize on Schedule A, then you can deduct your gambling losses up to the total amount of $2100, provided you have the proper written records of those losses. On your Michigan return, you will claim the $2100 as income, but according to Pokerfuse, Michigan does not allow one to deduct any gambling losses on the state return. Florida does not have a personal state income tax. I do not believe you file anything with the State of Florida, but I am not 100%. I did a lot of reading, and could not find anything that says you do. This includes Pokerfuse, and searches at the Florida State sites. To be sure, call the Florida Department of Revenue: http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/gta.html And look this over for future reference: http://www.stateofflorida.com/Portal/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=29 Reply I won a large number of individual jackpots last year (over 50). Do I need to list each of those out separately, or can I add up the total and list that as my ‘gambling winnings’? And do I need to actually send copies of the W2G forms along with my tax return? I only had the casino hold taxes on a few of the jackpots. Reply if you declare gambling winnings of $10,000 and declare $10,000 in gambling losses, do you still have to pay federal taxes on the winnings? Does it make a difference if your AGI is over a certain amount? Reply my father won 135,000 on the bad beat jackpot. he is on social security. approx. how much tax will he have to pay. Reply Sorry if this is a duplicate question… I won a “big win” on a slot $1,220. I opted to have the taxes taken out and received about $840 in cash (I don’t remember exact amount, this is just an estimate). Anyways, do I need to do anything else when I file my taxes? Reply Also, how would I go about claiming gambling losses? I know I am only allowed to claim up to $1220 but what exactly do I do? Sorry, I am very new at filing taxes! Thank you in advance! Reply You go about by keeping a detailed log book of your gambling wins and losses. Details include, but are not limited to, casino you were in, dates and times you played, the number of the individual slot machine, etc. A good log book is what you need first to take the deduction for losses. Then receipts showing you were at the casino, and a printout from the casino showing your wins and losses, and dates and times played, also help. You first need the W2-G showing the total win, and the withholding. Then just enter the W2-G information when you do your Turbo Tax return, or bring to your tax preparer. Also, remember that you cannot deduct any of your losses if you cannot itemize on Schedule A. You are probably not going to owe much tax on $1222. With so much withheld, you may even get some of the withholding back. Reply Thank you so much Jay K! You are so nice for helping everyone out – you’re my idol! Haha but really, thank you!! My only source of income is Social Security Disability which means I fall below the income to file for neither state nor federal taxes. However, I also won $714.00 on a lottery ticket and received a W-2G. Even adding the $714 to my SS Di income, I am far below a filing income. Do I need to do anything at all ? Reply You do not need to file a Federal tax return. Don’t know about the state return. Reply I won 4,500 in new york empire slot machine didn’t know I had option to get taxes taken out now. How much More or less am I going to have to pay? Wished they had Informed me of my options. Reply on social security + pension from post office +monthly withdrawls from thrift savings. I am retired) i live in pa and understand that i will not be taxed on any of these monthly payments but yet when i did turbo tax online they said i owe the state money. why? also had ganbling winnings and losses which amt’d to the same amt. last year i went to h and r block under the same monthly payments and gambling wins and losses and did not have to pay state taxes. so why does turbo tax say i must pay pa state taxes? Reply Get 720 for ssi & ssd . bet total $1.00 on Michigan Daily 4 and won 5,000, then hit for another 2,604, another day& I have tickets and played some at the casino. what and do I qualifly for as far as a tax break If any? don’t II get 2.500 like when II was on unemployment..Please help CONFUSED Reply I live in Illinois and won $1700 in Vegas. This is my only income for the year. Do I still have to file a tax return? Reply You do not have to file a Federal Tax return. Reply I won 914,000.00 at a casino. I took the lump sum and it was around 600,000.00 Do I have to pay taxes on the full 900k or just the 600k? Reply What do you mean “took the lump sum”? Did they withhold 314,000, and give you 600,000 or were you given a choice between $914,000 paid out in installments, or a one-time payment of $600,000? Reply I receive $680.00 in SS. That is my only income. This year I won $9651.80 total from 4 casinos. They took state tax out but no federal. My net income with SS was less than 20K. Do I have to file a federal return? Reply EVERYTIME you WON from the casinos you have to take in to account the following: it was in slot machines?(they tax anything over 1200 jackpots ONLY! so lets say you put 20 dollars and play for 1 hours and you did NOT hit any jackpot of over 1200, but lets say that the slot machine “was hot” and give you little prices of 20 dollars or anything under 1200 so you walk out of that machine with 4000 dollars you only report that in your 1040 form under “others”, IRS LAW IS CLEAR: 1200 jackpot YOU pay taxes, 5000 IN Poker YOU pay taxes, 600 on lottery YOU pay taxes, etc. Reply ..and yes YOU still responsible for FEDERAL which is 25% on any w-2G forms that you got, so IF you have W-2g FORMS TOTALLING 9651.80 YOU OWE IRS FEDERAL 2,412.95 $ , IRS does NOT care If you are living under a bride or have fixed income they care IF YOU WIN Reply My friend Andrew won 30 grand at Foxwoods casino. He did it over three trips each time coming back with over 10 grand. Each time he walked up to the cage, handed them his gamblers card and chips, and they handed him cash. He never got or signed any forms and nothing has come to him in the mail. What should he do? I want to advise him to claim it but he thinks if there is no form then he doesn’t have to. They mail him things all the time from that casino so they know his mailing address for forms. Your friend is required by law to declare that gambling income on his Federal and state tax returns. If he has a log book detailing his gambling losses for the tax year, then he may be able to itemize those losses on Schedule A of his Federal return. If your friend does not declare the $30,000, the chances that he will get caught are slim in the beginning. But as he spends the $30,000, he may leave an audit trail that he cannot cover. Also, he is vulnerable to you, as you can fill out the official IRS form, and turn him in. You will receive a reward from the money they collect from your friend. I have the exact same question..My friend is also on SSI and gets 771 a month. She of course does not file taxes. What is required? surely she does not make enought to be taxes, as long as her income with the win is still around 15,000 for the year. Reply There is a worksheet for determining if you have to file. Also, what state are you in? Reply If you live in Connecticut and are in a 25 percent tax bracket, you go to an Indian Casino in Florida and have a $10,000 hit, what is your tax liability? Reply Hello. I was recently in Missouri and won $2000.00 from video poker. I told the casino not to take out the federal taxes but they did take the state taxes for Missouri which was $80.00. My question is two fold. First, even though I won the money in Missouri, I reside in California; will I have to pay CA state tax as well on the winnings? Secondly, will I be able to declare the winnings as a loss to avoid having to pay the federal taxes? I did play about half of the money back. Thank You. Reply I recently won $9000 in Mississippi on a progressive pot at the 3-card poker table. I received a W-2G. the casino took out 25% in federal taxes and about 3% MS tax. I live in Texas. Can I recover the amount withheld in MS as I don’t live in the state? Do I need to file a MS state return? Reply You are not required to file a Mississippi tax return. Mississippi taxed your win at 3%, and the casino has collected and remitted this tax for you. See: http://www.dor.ms.gov/taxareas/individ/GamblingWinnings.html Reply So I do online sports betting in WA state, which is technically illegal here, but its through a site that keeps my info off-line… with an agent kinda like a bookie. Their site is 100% legit, they pay out in cash, but I fear winning too much and not being able to use all my winnings in pure cash transactions in daily life. So I assume I’ll have to make deposits to my bank. I plan to claim those collective deposits as my gambling winnings. I offset the limited reported earnings by the fact that I won’t be reporting my losses either, since sports betting is technically illegal in my state and I don’t want to show the proof of my losses. Am I best off to claim these were table-game winnings? And in WA state what tax percentage should I plan to be paying? I want to be prepared for that… Reply Also, the main reason I want to claim any of it is so I can use it to buy a car, or make a “major” purchase without having the IRS creep down my back. Reply if you are talking a few thoudsands a year I will just put it in “others” section in my 1040 form BUT if we are talking about LARGE amounts I will say more than 25 thoudsands I will HIRE A TAX ATTORNEY since irs will be happy to “look” for any suspicious large bank transactions or purchases Reply The reason why casinos are not required to report table game winnings is becuase there is no way a casino can keep track of how much it COST a player to win over whatever amount they might set. say they set it at $1200. If a player walks up to the cashier’s booth with $1500 in chips, there is no way they know if he is up $1400 or down $500 because there is no record of whether or not he bought $100 in chips, or $2000 in chips. Even with the technology today, it would be prohibitively expensive (and time consuming enough to slow down the play to the point of lost business) to record each and every players starting chip total, plus any extra he pays in later. I honestly can’t believe there are people..especially websites talking about taxes, that DON”T know this. Reply Whoa buddy, slow down a bit. There’s nothing in the article that states why casino’s don’t report table game winnings, just that they’re not reported. Reply I think he was replying to someone else, but he didn’t hit the reply button. Hi, Are winnings from table games such as blackjack and baccarat have flat tax rate too? Or do they count as regular income? I understand that filing tax for table game winning is more of an “honor code” so what percentage of the winnings should the player report to keep Uncle Sam from getting suspicious? e.g. a man wins 250k in the year, should he only report 100k, 150k, 200k, etc. I’m sure most people don’t report ALL the winnings yet don’t want to have too much cash laying around… Thank you Reply Well….he SHOULD report all of it. I think you are confusing the flat tax rate with how much to report. They report every last penny of your slot machine winnings, and tax it at a 25% rate. The thing about table games is there is no way to keep an accurate count of your expenses. You could cash out with $10,000 in chips. But you may have bought $9000 when you started. And it isn’t as if you are getting a receipt from the dealer. Reply HERE IS THE THING is hard to go UNNOTICED to the IRS(since they will also get a tip of large transactions from the banks since they are in the OBLIGATION to report any LARGE TRANSACTION to IRS or/and FBI(Money laundering act) so the best is GIVE UNCLE SAM WHAT IS FRO UNCLE SAM since they don’t play around with the “liens”, so if I were you, with such LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY I will CALL A TAX LAWYER to report taxes and I WILL NEVER DO IT JUST BY MYSELF since IRS is more than happy to “look” for any “big fish” Reply Please let me know more about State of Michigan tax laws as to casino slot winnings vs. losses. I have two friends who got hit hard by Michigan even though losses exceeded gains. Thank You John Van Dette jvandette63@hotmail.com Reply John…I just sent you a private message to your hotmail account. I too was harassed by the State of Michigan and won the first gambling case in Michigan. It can be done. Reply CAN I PLEASE GET THE INFORMATION YOU SENT TO THE BELOW WITH RESPONSE TO THEIR REQUEST? vinnyboborinostein said: on October 4, 2013 at 2:04 pm Please let me know more about State of Michigan tax laws as to casino slot winnings vs. losses. I have two friends who got hit hard by Michigan even though losses exceeded gains. Kelly – Please have them private nmessage me and I can give you the details. Tootsietot@comcast.net I would also like to please see your email response. Seems as if the State of Michigan keeps coming up in the threads. Thank you, Here too. I am a MI resident, have over 40k in W9-G 1099 winnings and after getting win / loss statements and checking my log, I am a net loser by 6k. This is the first year I ‘played big / won big’ so I’m doing the tax research and am SHOCKED that I can’t itemize the loss’ against winnings for a net sum of zero. That’s another $1,700 of income tax! In hindsight (and from now on) I should have had the casino take out the taxes on the jackpots, got a refund and paid from that to the State. I’d be grateful for information you have on losses claimed against winnings for the State of MI. If I did ern that much money for the year 2011will my gambling winning still be included as income and taxable? 21 K is gross and 12K is taxable income and I win 2K Reply Based on the information given, your 2K in winnings should be added to your income on Line 21 of your Form 1040. Then your Total Income for Line 22 will be 24K (21K + 2K = 24K). Your total taxable income on Line 43 will be 14K (12 K + 2 K = 14K) Tax is going to be $1671 instead of $1379. Your 2K winnings increase your tax by $292. See Tax Table, Pub 17, Year 2011: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p17–2011.pdf Note that if you had 2K of gambling losses to offset the 2K of gambling winnings, you could NOT take the losses because the 2K loss is not enough to itemize on Schedule A. For 2011, you are going to instead be taking the Standard Deduction of $5800. Reply If you win a taxable jackpot on slots can I tell the casino on what percentage I wanted to be deducted instead of the flat 25%? Reply YES you can BUT and this is a BIG BUT, you STILL HAVE TO PAY THE REST AT THE END OF THE YEAR(by this I mean at TAX TIME usually in February of the next year)heck YOU CAN EVEN ASK THE CASINO TO GIVE YOU THE “FULL JACKPOT WINNINGS” and they will be more than happy to do it(they are hopping that you lose the money back to them in the next 5 minutes but this does not means you don’t have to repot YOUR “winnings” to uncle sam), CASINO WILL STILL REPORT YOU to IRS(that’s why the casino will give you or SURPRISE!! mail you the form at the end of the year, since IS YOUR RESPONSABILITY to report taxes Reply …and the “flat 25%” is NOT just a “pick whatever number you like” IS THE IRS LAW (plus any other STATE which depending where you live is another + 3 to 5 %) Reply I won $1750 in Missouri in a progressive drawing. Only thing required to win was to have your card in the machine. Am I required to pay taxes on this amount, and am I required to pay Illinois taxes as well, as that is where I live? Any idea as to approximately how much will I have to pay? Reply ANY WINNING OVER 1200$ in slot machines, and I think 5000 in poker and 600 in lottery if I am remember right!! YOU HAVE TO PAY TAXES (FEDERAL AND STATE) federal is 25% and states it depends WHICH ONE (usually from 3 to 5 %) so to be safe lets say 25 federal plus 5 for the state = 30% = 525$ in taxes(federal AND state) total that YOU OWN, and remember to be in the safe side ALWAYS ASK THE CASINO TO WITHOLD THE TAXES FOR YOU and when they give you the W-2G check for the “WITHOLDINGS” amounts SO YOU DOTN HAVE TO WORRY LATER ABOUT OWNING MONEY THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY PROBABLY SPEND Reply My daughter won 2,000 for year2011 and didn’t claim if her taxes now she owes $3,000, what can we do? Reply She should have a licensed tax preparer review her situation, preferably an Enrolled Agent (EA), a CPA, or best – a tax attorney. She may not owe the $3000. If she does owe, then the EA can help her set up a payment plan with the IRS. If she doesn’t have the money right now for professional help, then she can try the Taxpayer Advocate Service: http://www.irs.gov/Advocate Reply I won $5000 on ultimate texas holdem at an indian casino. They took out taxes right away with no consent from me. They took out $1788. So about 35%. Also, they did not give me a sheet at all or anything. Is there something fishy going on? Reply it could be, some bad casinos(mostly outside USA do this so THEY are taking money from their goverment), YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ASK FOR YOUR W-2G form AS SOON AS YOU HIT ANY JACKPOT also to be in the safe side since YOU HAVE TO PAY THOSE TAXES SOON OR LATER so is better to TELL THE CASINO to do it for you so you get your money MINUS the taxes SO YOU DONT HAVE TO WORRY AT THE END OF THE YEAR or risking later down the road that you DONT have the money any more SINCE you WON YOU HAVE TO REPORT IT. Reply I won a weekly drawing at an Alabama Indian casino of $100,000. They took out $30,000 in fed tax. Will I owe anymore? I live in Florida, so I have no state tax. I have sales online of approximately $50,000 for 2013. So what I owe will be based on $150,000? Reply My mother is 83 years old. Her total income last year was 12,456.00 (social security). She recently won 2 jackpots at a casino totaling about 10,000. She has not filed a tax return in the last few years. Is there a max she can make (total) before she has to file a tax return, or should she file regardless? Thanks! Reply 1) Is there a max she can make before she has to file a tax return for 2013? Based on the information given, your mother can make $11,499 (not including her Social Security) before she must file a Federal tax return. She is not required to file for 2013. See Table 1-1 on page 5 of Pub. 17: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf 2) Should she file regardless? If I were the tax preparer, I would advise your mother to file for 2013. If the casino reports that $10,000 to the IRS, and issues a W2-G, then the IRS may wonder why they have no tax return from your mother. More importantly, I would go so far as to advise her to file every year, even when she is not required to file. In my practice, I deal with victims of identity theft. An example is my client who was not required to file, but because he did not, an identity thief was able to file a return using my client’s identity, and cause my client unbelievable hardship. Also, if your mother files every year, then this could be helpful in the future to the executor or administrator of your mother’s estate. 3) What you didn’t ask about: Combined Income leads to taxation of Social Security, but that is OK. Combined Income is a figure used to determine if any of one’s Social Security is taxable. Don’t confuse it with Taxable Income. If your mother continues to be a winner, then be aware that her “Combined Income” could cause some of her Social Security to be taxed. But don’t let uninformed folks tell you that is a bad thing. Generally, the more she wins, the better her after-tax income will be. In other words, if she has to pay tax on her Social Security, then she is doing great. Although I don’t like to encourage gambling, let’s think positive. Let’s hope your mother wins a little more before 2013 ends. For 2013, her “Combined Income” would have to be over $25,000 before she MIGHT have to pay tax on her Social Security. Here is the calculation for Combined Income. Mother’s adjusted gross income + Nontaxable interest + ½ of your Social Security benefits = Mother’s “combined income” Here is the current situation: Judy’s Mother’s AGI (The Jackpots) $ 10,000 Nontaxable interest………………………$ 0.00 1/2 Social Security ………………………$ 6,228 Judy’s Mother’s Combined Income = ……………………………………$ 16,228 Your mother can win $8,772 more before her Social Security might be taxed a little*, and note she will have to pay income tax on that $8,772. She will still be ahead several thousand dollars. Pub. 915, Worksheet 1, is what one uses to calculate the taxable amount of Social Security that goes on Form 1040: For WORKSHEET 1, see Page 7: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p915.pdf 4) What you didn’t ask about: Keeping track of gambling losses. Going into 2014, your mother should keep track of her gambling wins and losses by maintaining a good log book that will hold up in an IRS audit. For 2014, if she has total losses that exceed her Standard Deduction, subject to the 2% AGI limitation, then she can claim the total losses on her Schedule A, up to the amount of her total winnings. See Links: Social Security Benefits Planner: http://www.ssa.gov/planners/taxes.htm Social Security Retirement: http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10035.pdf Reply I need to make a correction: The gambling losses are not subject to the 2% AGI limitation on Schedule A. They simply go on line 28 of the Schedule A, under Other Miscellaneous Deductions: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc419.html For 2013, if your AGI is over $150,000, you will have to do the worksheet for Line 29 of the Schedule A, and your overall itemized deductions may be limited. See page A-13 of the following: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sca.pdf Ive had 8 w2-G forms pile up here on my desk this year from jackpots over $1200.00 playing video poker, and not once were the casinos I played in even hinting they were to take out anything for Uncle Sam. It would tick me off had they done so, because thats cash Ill probably never see again. Reply Majority of casinos are NOT obligated to TAKE YOUR TAXES BUT TO REPORT YOU, this being said, CASINOS love to give you all your “winning jackpot” and just a W-2G and a lot of times they will NOT even give it to you in the spot(when you won the jackpot) THEY WILL MAIL IT TO YOU AT THE END OF THE YEAR(that’s because casinos want to win the money back INCLUDIING THE TAXES!!) so YOU are responsible AND LEFT HOLDING the tax, SINCE IS YOUR RESPONSABILITY Reply I have slot machine winnings over $15,000 for this year. I did not take out the taxes on any of these winnings. For Colorado, will I pay both state and federal taxes on these winnings? Reply I am a student with a part time job in the summers making roughly 5000 of which 425 was held out for taxes. I am 22 and my parents still claim me on their taxes. I have 21,000 in gambling w2s, which is all of my winnings gambling, never quit without hitting a jackpot or losing. AI have about 20,000 in losses and have kept a log to show when and where i gambled amount lost etc. The log is all i have to prove it. I mostly gamble with just cash but i put all of my winnings in one account and periodically make withdrawals at the bank before i play. I havent done this all the time because about 8000 of the losses was cash. The question is will my gambling log suffice as proof. Also, if i had 20,000 in losses that would make my taxable income at roughly 6500 and put me in the 10 % bracket owing about 200.00 since i paid 400 in taxes from my summer job? thanks Reply I won $2000.00 on a slot machine in a bar located in Oregon. If the IRS has a lien against me and I owe other things like school loans, state taxes in Oregon and California. Will the Oregon Lotto office just keep my winnings when I go to Salem to cash it in? Reply « Older Comments Newer Comments » Leave a ReplyCancel reply Browse Related Articles Income and Investments Gambling Winnings Taxes: An Intro Guide Income and Investments Sports Gambling and How Your Winnings are Taxed Income and Investments How Do Game Show Winnings Affect Your Taxes? Income and Investments 3 Tax Reasons for Why You Should Think Twice Before Bet… Tax News How Will You Be Taxed If You Win the Powerball Jackpot? 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If you Itemize your deductions the program ask if you received a state tax refund. If you did not recieve a state tax refund but did when money gambling from another state but did not receive a 1099-g for those winnings how do you claim it on your taxes? Reply
Hello, For Table Games, do you need to report winning every hand that you bet and list the loss for every hand that you lost? Do you just report net winning or loss on daily net winning or loss? Reply
Hi Marty, No, gambling winnings are shown as a total, generally by the payer (casino etc.), for the year. Each payer should report any winnings to you on a Form W-2G, which you enter in TurboTax. Any cash winnings are entered after the W-2G interviews as a total amount for the year. Then you enter a total for the year’s gambling losses up to the amount of the winnings you had. You cannot deduct more than the winnings you enter. Note that the IRS only allows you to take gambling losses as an itemized deduction, which means you only benefit by the deduction if you itemize deductions (TurboTax will help you with this). Gambling losses won’t be able to show up for you if your standard deduction is larger than your itemized deductions. Be sure you have receipts, tickets, statements or other records showing your winnings and losses, so you can verify any gambling losses you claim. Reply
Running Turbo tax deluxe, I have run thru my income and got to the W2Gs. Several with an indian casino, totaling $171,800.00. The win loss stmt says we lost more that won. I entered all the w2Gs and took the deduction for the amount won. However, the tax (shown at top of program page) before entry of the W2Gs went up from about 6k to 60k then back to about 8K after the $171,800.00 deduction. Did I pop into some sort of alternative minium tax situation? Total income is from work, gambling and pensions is about $357,000. Of which 171,800 was reported on W2Gs. Reply
Hi Hank, Yes that is possible. Income over $51,900 if you’re single and $80,800 for married filing jointly is subject to AMT and your itemized deductions are limited at income of $250,000 if you’re single and $300,000 if married filing jointly. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply
If there were not enough deductions otherwise, the gaming losses forces itemization of deductions, thus increasing taxable income by the difference of nongaming deductions and the $12,200 standard deduction.
I won 8,000 at a casino. My gambling losses were more but I was only allowed to put in 8,000 losses but it didn’t affect my bottom line?? What I had to pay after I put in winnings was exactly the same after I put in losses…how is that? It’s always zeroed out before. A wash. Reply
Ok, then I would need to be able to see the whole tax return to figure out if there is a bug. Unfortunately, I cannot do that on this forum.
From the facts given, the $8,000 in losses is not affecting your bottom line because you do not have enough in Schedule A itemized deductions to beat the Standard Deduction for Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) of $12,200. Reply
I have the exact same issue. I checked TurboTax numbers on completed return and all are good except the bottom line Taxable Income is $8K too high, which attributed to my $8K W-2Gs winnings. My Sked A Itemized deductions amount to over $37K (MFJ) and TurboTax confirms Itemized deduction election. For some reason TurboTax has included the Gambling winnings into my Taxable Income (first year I’ve seen this happen).
I’m filing a federal tax return, a Wisconsin resident tax return, and a non-resident Louisiana tax return (because of a gambling win there). The federal return clearly includes all sources of income. The Louisiana return clearly includes only the gambling win from LA, as that is my only income from that state. My question is about my primary state of residence (WI)…. do I include only income from WI or do I have to include the LA gambling win also? Reply
If I have 50 W-Gs, do I have to enter each one individually, or just put the total amount combined? Reply
Hi Susan, You should put each one in separately to avoid math calculation errors especially since TurboTax adds everything up for you. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply
Where on turbo tax do I claim my gambling loss. I won $1800 then paid state tax only. I then gambled back all but $500. How to I tell turbo tax ? Thank you Reply
Yes, you will file a non-resident return for Louisiana in addition to your federal and California returns. Reply
hi say im a 13 teen year old who signed up on a poker site with my moms ssn and info behind her back and won over 24,000 in 3 months and cashed 2 in a 100k guar tournament what should he do Reply
Matt, First and foremost you need to inform your Mother. The IRS will see this huge amount of extra income and will come after her. Before you get too in debt with this on line gambling, you need to tell your Mother. The IRS catches this very quickly. Reply
Hi, I was in Las Vegas back in November 2013, I stayed at the MGM Grand. I was playing the slots on a Saturday night when I hit $25,000. When the man came and started to explain my winnings to me I was shocked. The man told me that they will be taking 30% equals $7500. How or do I get any of this money back?? My full time residence is in Canada. Reply
Doud: The max is 28% in Vegas. You will not get any money back, it goes to the IRS. The remainder of the 2% the casino took it. That’s not legal. Reply
My win loss statement says that my estimated tracked cash in is $2,927,972.40, My estimated tracked cash out is $2,371,093.77, my estimated tracked jackpot is $498,908.54, my estimated (net loss) is ($57,970.09). I had taxes of $16,569 withheld from winnings. 90% of my winnings went right back into the machines. But now my tax preparer is saying I owe $161,000 in federal and $ 42, 000 to state. Does this sound right to you? Reply
Hi Janet, Without seeing your other income sources it’s hard to tell. If you had other income, it has to be added to your gambling winnings, which puts you in a higher tax bracket. Your gambling losses reduce your taxable income, but it is not a dollar for dollar deduction from your tax liability. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply
If someone had to gamble at a casino to win points so I could get a ticket to enter drawing can I claim my losses gambling. They ended up winning the drawing and got a car that had a fmv of 55,000 according to casino. They sold it for 45,000 and got a 1099 misc for 55,000. Since they had to gamble to get the drawing tickets to win …can they claim their losses against it. You had to play during the month of October to earn the drawing tickets and they drew the winners at the end of the month. So can you claim losses ..if not, can you just claim what you sold car for? Reply
Hi Heather, Yes you can claim losses up to your gambling winnings if you itemize your deductions. TurboTax will help you accurately claim your losses. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply
Although many casinos give a 1099 instead of W-2G, he car’s “value” should be gaming win. #1. How do you enter it if you have a 1099? #2. How do you determine car’s “correct’ value?
Where on turbo tax do you enter your gabbling loss against your winning? I paid state taxes on my $1800 winnings but played back all but $500. Please direct me to that area of itemization on tax turbo. Thank you
Hi Judy, You should go to the federal taxes tab, itemized deductions, and you would enter them under miscellaneous itemized deductions. Please keep in mind if you do not have itemized deductions over the standard deduction of $6,100 if single, $12,200 if married filing jointly, then you won’t get your itemized deductions which include your gambling losses. TurboTax will accurately figure out which deductions you’re eligible for based on your answers. Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis
I live in Ohio and won $32,000 over the entire year. The casinos were in Indiana and they took out Indiana state taxes. I lost as much as I won and my federal taxes are done and good. I however do not understand the means of filing Indiana non-resident tax forms to try and get back what I had to pay in Ohio state taxes. Where do I list the income on the Indiana state tax forms? I do not see a section for just gambling. Do I list it in the income section?
I recently won $4700 in vegas on a slotmachine I was taxed right then and there 28% for federal taxes but I live in California so I know I will owe state taxes come next year does anyone know what percent I will end up having to pay come that time?? Reply
Just to be clear, you were not taxed 28%. The casino withheld 28%. You may get that entire amount back when you file your taxes. You may not owe CA state income tax on that $4700. It will depend on how much your total taxable income is for the year. Reply
No I paid 28% in taxes I got the w4 showing it was paid straight to fed but 0 to state but thanks I’m sure I’ll still ended up paring some state next year just not sure how much
Again, they withheld 28%. You didn’t pay 28%. Depending on your tax situation, you may get the entire withholding back.
My son won 7000.00 on a slot machine and is a college student also not employed. Will he have to pay taxes on that? Reply
My son won 7000.00 on a slot machine and is a college student also not employed. Will he have to pay taxes on that? Also he lives in Oklahoma. Reply
I am filing my Dad’s return for WA and if he won gambling winnings from Louisiana do I need to file a LA return as well? LA does take out state taxes on winnings. Reply
So, I live in California and was in Colorado over the summer in 2012 where I won a small casino jackpot of $1684. They gave me a Form W-2G form when they paid me and I just completed my taxes using Turbo Tax Federal and CA State and the program is telling me Ihave to file a whole separate State return for Colorado. I get that I likely have to pay state taxes on this but what are my options instead of buying a Turbo Tax State program for $40 – for such a small amount of income? Reply
You can obtain the Colorado state imcome tax form from their website, and file that return on your own. Better to pay the $40, and just do it through Turbo Tax. Reply
Recently had my win/loss statement of -15,127.75 and total winning of 14,000. do i still owe taxes? some of them had fed and state taken out already and 4 are not?? so do i still need to pay taxes?? thanks in advance Reply
On your Federal return, you will list your gambling losses on your Schedule A, and you will put your total winnings of $14,000 on Line 21 of your Form 1040. You can only deduct $14,000 in losses against the $14K in winnings. You cannot deduct the remaining loss ($15,127.75 – $14K = 1,127.75 loss). Do you owe taxes? First depends on what state you live in. For example, Michigan does not allow you to deduct gambling losses. You pay on the $14,000 in winnings. On your Federal return, the important test is whether your gambling logbook will hold up on audit. If you have followed the rules for keeping the logbook, then you should be able to deduct $14,000 in gambling losses against the $14,000 in gambling winnings with no worries. Your total Federal tax due will determine whether or not you get back your Federal withholding on your gambling winnings. Reply
True that on Michigan. They are squeezing the little guy more and more with higher fees and ridiculous tax laws like the one referring to no deduction on the Michigan return for gambling losses. Oh but there is a huge budget surplus in the state. Of course there is. Rob the middle class into poverty. I hate this state with a passion and pimp them any and every chance I get. F*&^^%wads.
Yes James that is true on the Michigan gambling losses point. For the last 10 years or so the State has been nickel and diming the middle class any and every way they can. Hey, what comes around goes around.
I won $6000 on a slot machine but lost more than $6000, do i still have to report the w-2g on my tax return. when i put it on my return and put my losses in the deductions, my return is still $900 less than what it would be without putting the w-2g in. Reply
Winstar casino reported to the IRS over 100,000 dollars more than I actually won or signed for. All my tax/legal papers were lost in storage. I need info and guidance on how to fight this fraudulent claim and tax lein. Do I contact CPA? Tax lawyer? IRS? Please advise Reply
I am a senior and I collect SSI in New York City, I purchase a ticket hit on some numbers and the value of my winnings is a little over 500.00. Will I get penalized in and way if I go to claim my winnings as far as the SSI is concerned? Reply
Hi Irene, Not penalized, but depending on how much social security you receive the $500 taxable income could make some of your social security taxable. Please see our post on how social security is taxed http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/2012/02/13/how-social-security-income-is-taxed/ Thank you, Lisa Greene-Lewis Reply
My wife just won $2100 at a casino in Florida. She did not have any taxes taken out. We live in Michigan, so I am assuming I have to claim this on next year’s Michigan tax return and will have to fill out a Florida tax return. Is this correct? I do know I have to claim on federal. Reply
Ok John, let’s break it down. I will assume that you and your wife are filing a joint return (MFJ). On your Federal return, you will claim the $2100 on Line 21 of Form 1040. If you are able to itemize on Schedule A, then you can deduct your gambling losses up to the total amount of $2100, provided you have the proper written records of those losses. On your Michigan return, you will claim the $2100 as income, but according to Pokerfuse, Michigan does not allow one to deduct any gambling losses on the state return. Florida does not have a personal state income tax. I do not believe you file anything with the State of Florida, but I am not 100%. I did a lot of reading, and could not find anything that says you do. This includes Pokerfuse, and searches at the Florida State sites. To be sure, call the Florida Department of Revenue: http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/gta.html And look this over for future reference: http://www.stateofflorida.com/Portal/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=29 Reply
I won a large number of individual jackpots last year (over 50). Do I need to list each of those out separately, or can I add up the total and list that as my ‘gambling winnings’? And do I need to actually send copies of the W2G forms along with my tax return? I only had the casino hold taxes on a few of the jackpots. Reply
if you declare gambling winnings of $10,000 and declare $10,000 in gambling losses, do you still have to pay federal taxes on the winnings? Does it make a difference if your AGI is over a certain amount? Reply
my father won 135,000 on the bad beat jackpot. he is on social security. approx. how much tax will he have to pay. Reply
Sorry if this is a duplicate question… I won a “big win” on a slot $1,220. I opted to have the taxes taken out and received about $840 in cash (I don’t remember exact amount, this is just an estimate). Anyways, do I need to do anything else when I file my taxes? Reply
Also, how would I go about claiming gambling losses? I know I am only allowed to claim up to $1220 but what exactly do I do? Sorry, I am very new at filing taxes! Thank you in advance! Reply
You go about by keeping a detailed log book of your gambling wins and losses. Details include, but are not limited to, casino you were in, dates and times you played, the number of the individual slot machine, etc. A good log book is what you need first to take the deduction for losses. Then receipts showing you were at the casino, and a printout from the casino showing your wins and losses, and dates and times played, also help.
You first need the W2-G showing the total win, and the withholding. Then just enter the W2-G information when you do your Turbo Tax return, or bring to your tax preparer. Also, remember that you cannot deduct any of your losses if you cannot itemize on Schedule A. You are probably not going to owe much tax on $1222. With so much withheld, you may even get some of the withholding back. Reply
Thank you so much Jay K! You are so nice for helping everyone out – you’re my idol! Haha but really, thank you!!
My only source of income is Social Security Disability which means I fall below the income to file for neither state nor federal taxes. However, I also won $714.00 on a lottery ticket and received a W-2G. Even adding the $714 to my SS Di income, I am far below a filing income. Do I need to do anything at all ? Reply
I won 4,500 in new york empire slot machine didn’t know I had option to get taxes taken out now. How much More or less am I going to have to pay? Wished they had Informed me of my options. Reply
on social security + pension from post office +monthly withdrawls from thrift savings. I am retired) i live in pa and understand that i will not be taxed on any of these monthly payments but yet when i did turbo tax online they said i owe the state money. why? also had ganbling winnings and losses which amt’d to the same amt. last year i went to h and r block under the same monthly payments and gambling wins and losses and did not have to pay state taxes. so why does turbo tax say i must pay pa state taxes? Reply
Get 720 for ssi & ssd . bet total $1.00 on Michigan Daily 4 and won 5,000, then hit for another 2,604, another day& I have tickets and played some at the casino. what and do I qualifly for as far as a tax break If any? don’t II get 2.500 like when II was on unemployment..Please help CONFUSED Reply
I live in Illinois and won $1700 in Vegas. This is my only income for the year. Do I still have to file a tax return? Reply
I won 914,000.00 at a casino. I took the lump sum and it was around 600,000.00 Do I have to pay taxes on the full 900k or just the 600k? Reply
What do you mean “took the lump sum”? Did they withhold 314,000, and give you 600,000 or were you given a choice between $914,000 paid out in installments, or a one-time payment of $600,000? Reply
I receive $680.00 in SS. That is my only income. This year I won $9651.80 total from 4 casinos. They took state tax out but no federal. My net income with SS was less than 20K. Do I have to file a federal return? Reply
EVERYTIME you WON from the casinos you have to take in to account the following: it was in slot machines?(they tax anything over 1200 jackpots ONLY! so lets say you put 20 dollars and play for 1 hours and you did NOT hit any jackpot of over 1200, but lets say that the slot machine “was hot” and give you little prices of 20 dollars or anything under 1200 so you walk out of that machine with 4000 dollars you only report that in your 1040 form under “others”, IRS LAW IS CLEAR: 1200 jackpot YOU pay taxes, 5000 IN Poker YOU pay taxes, 600 on lottery YOU pay taxes, etc. Reply
..and yes YOU still responsible for FEDERAL which is 25% on any w-2G forms that you got, so IF you have W-2g FORMS TOTALLING 9651.80 YOU OWE IRS FEDERAL 2,412.95 $ , IRS does NOT care If you are living under a bride or have fixed income they care IF YOU WIN Reply
My friend Andrew won 30 grand at Foxwoods casino. He did it over three trips each time coming back with over 10 grand. Each time he walked up to the cage, handed them his gamblers card and chips, and they handed him cash. He never got or signed any forms and nothing has come to him in the mail. What should he do? I want to advise him to claim it but he thinks if there is no form then he doesn’t have to. They mail him things all the time from that casino so they know his mailing address for forms.
Your friend is required by law to declare that gambling income on his Federal and state tax returns. If he has a log book detailing his gambling losses for the tax year, then he may be able to itemize those losses on Schedule A of his Federal return. If your friend does not declare the $30,000, the chances that he will get caught are slim in the beginning. But as he spends the $30,000, he may leave an audit trail that he cannot cover. Also, he is vulnerable to you, as you can fill out the official IRS form, and turn him in. You will receive a reward from the money they collect from your friend.
I have the exact same question..My friend is also on SSI and gets 771 a month. She of course does not file taxes. What is required? surely she does not make enought to be taxes, as long as her income with the win is still around 15,000 for the year. Reply
If you live in Connecticut and are in a 25 percent tax bracket, you go to an Indian Casino in Florida and have a $10,000 hit, what is your tax liability? Reply
Hello. I was recently in Missouri and won $2000.00 from video poker. I told the casino not to take out the federal taxes but they did take the state taxes for Missouri which was $80.00. My question is two fold. First, even though I won the money in Missouri, I reside in California; will I have to pay CA state tax as well on the winnings? Secondly, will I be able to declare the winnings as a loss to avoid having to pay the federal taxes? I did play about half of the money back. Thank You. Reply
I recently won $9000 in Mississippi on a progressive pot at the 3-card poker table. I received a W-2G. the casino took out 25% in federal taxes and about 3% MS tax. I live in Texas. Can I recover the amount withheld in MS as I don’t live in the state? Do I need to file a MS state return? Reply
You are not required to file a Mississippi tax return. Mississippi taxed your win at 3%, and the casino has collected and remitted this tax for you. See: http://www.dor.ms.gov/taxareas/individ/GamblingWinnings.html Reply
So I do online sports betting in WA state, which is technically illegal here, but its through a site that keeps my info off-line… with an agent kinda like a bookie. Their site is 100% legit, they pay out in cash, but I fear winning too much and not being able to use all my winnings in pure cash transactions in daily life. So I assume I’ll have to make deposits to my bank. I plan to claim those collective deposits as my gambling winnings. I offset the limited reported earnings by the fact that I won’t be reporting my losses either, since sports betting is technically illegal in my state and I don’t want to show the proof of my losses. Am I best off to claim these were table-game winnings? And in WA state what tax percentage should I plan to be paying? I want to be prepared for that… Reply
Also, the main reason I want to claim any of it is so I can use it to buy a car, or make a “major” purchase without having the IRS creep down my back. Reply
if you are talking a few thoudsands a year I will just put it in “others” section in my 1040 form BUT if we are talking about LARGE amounts I will say more than 25 thoudsands I will HIRE A TAX ATTORNEY since irs will be happy to “look” for any suspicious large bank transactions or purchases Reply
The reason why casinos are not required to report table game winnings is becuase there is no way a casino can keep track of how much it COST a player to win over whatever amount they might set. say they set it at $1200. If a player walks up to the cashier’s booth with $1500 in chips, there is no way they know if he is up $1400 or down $500 because there is no record of whether or not he bought $100 in chips, or $2000 in chips. Even with the technology today, it would be prohibitively expensive (and time consuming enough to slow down the play to the point of lost business) to record each and every players starting chip total, plus any extra he pays in later. I honestly can’t believe there are people..especially websites talking about taxes, that DON”T know this. Reply
Whoa buddy, slow down a bit. There’s nothing in the article that states why casino’s don’t report table game winnings, just that they’re not reported. Reply
Hi, Are winnings from table games such as blackjack and baccarat have flat tax rate too? Or do they count as regular income? I understand that filing tax for table game winning is more of an “honor code” so what percentage of the winnings should the player report to keep Uncle Sam from getting suspicious? e.g. a man wins 250k in the year, should he only report 100k, 150k, 200k, etc. I’m sure most people don’t report ALL the winnings yet don’t want to have too much cash laying around… Thank you Reply
Well….he SHOULD report all of it. I think you are confusing the flat tax rate with how much to report. They report every last penny of your slot machine winnings, and tax it at a 25% rate. The thing about table games is there is no way to keep an accurate count of your expenses. You could cash out with $10,000 in chips. But you may have bought $9000 when you started. And it isn’t as if you are getting a receipt from the dealer. Reply
HERE IS THE THING is hard to go UNNOTICED to the IRS(since they will also get a tip of large transactions from the banks since they are in the OBLIGATION to report any LARGE TRANSACTION to IRS or/and FBI(Money laundering act) so the best is GIVE UNCLE SAM WHAT IS FRO UNCLE SAM since they don’t play around with the “liens”, so if I were you, with such LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY I will CALL A TAX LAWYER to report taxes and I WILL NEVER DO IT JUST BY MYSELF since IRS is more than happy to “look” for any “big fish” Reply
Please let me know more about State of Michigan tax laws as to casino slot winnings vs. losses. I have two friends who got hit hard by Michigan even though losses exceeded gains. Thank You John Van Dette jvandette63@hotmail.com Reply
John…I just sent you a private message to your hotmail account. I too was harassed by the State of Michigan and won the first gambling case in Michigan. It can be done. Reply
CAN I PLEASE GET THE INFORMATION YOU SENT TO THE BELOW WITH RESPONSE TO THEIR REQUEST? vinnyboborinostein said: on October 4, 2013 at 2:04 pm Please let me know more about State of Michigan tax laws as to casino slot winnings vs. losses. I have two friends who got hit hard by Michigan even though losses exceeded gains.
I would also like to please see your email response. Seems as if the State of Michigan keeps coming up in the threads. Thank you,
Here too. I am a MI resident, have over 40k in W9-G 1099 winnings and after getting win / loss statements and checking my log, I am a net loser by 6k. This is the first year I ‘played big / won big’ so I’m doing the tax research and am SHOCKED that I can’t itemize the loss’ against winnings for a net sum of zero. That’s another $1,700 of income tax! In hindsight (and from now on) I should have had the casino take out the taxes on the jackpots, got a refund and paid from that to the State. I’d be grateful for information you have on losses claimed against winnings for the State of MI.
If I did ern that much money for the year 2011will my gambling winning still be included as income and taxable? 21 K is gross and 12K is taxable income and I win 2K Reply
Based on the information given, your 2K in winnings should be added to your income on Line 21 of your Form 1040. Then your Total Income for Line 22 will be 24K (21K + 2K = 24K). Your total taxable income on Line 43 will be 14K (12 K + 2 K = 14K) Tax is going to be $1671 instead of $1379. Your 2K winnings increase your tax by $292. See Tax Table, Pub 17, Year 2011: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p17–2011.pdf Note that if you had 2K of gambling losses to offset the 2K of gambling winnings, you could NOT take the losses because the 2K loss is not enough to itemize on Schedule A. For 2011, you are going to instead be taking the Standard Deduction of $5800. Reply
If you win a taxable jackpot on slots can I tell the casino on what percentage I wanted to be deducted instead of the flat 25%? Reply
YES you can BUT and this is a BIG BUT, you STILL HAVE TO PAY THE REST AT THE END OF THE YEAR(by this I mean at TAX TIME usually in February of the next year)heck YOU CAN EVEN ASK THE CASINO TO GIVE YOU THE “FULL JACKPOT WINNINGS” and they will be more than happy to do it(they are hopping that you lose the money back to them in the next 5 minutes but this does not means you don’t have to repot YOUR “winnings” to uncle sam), CASINO WILL STILL REPORT YOU to IRS(that’s why the casino will give you or SURPRISE!! mail you the form at the end of the year, since IS YOUR RESPONSABILITY to report taxes Reply
…and the “flat 25%” is NOT just a “pick whatever number you like” IS THE IRS LAW (plus any other STATE which depending where you live is another + 3 to 5 %) Reply
I won $1750 in Missouri in a progressive drawing. Only thing required to win was to have your card in the machine. Am I required to pay taxes on this amount, and am I required to pay Illinois taxes as well, as that is where I live? Any idea as to approximately how much will I have to pay? Reply
ANY WINNING OVER 1200$ in slot machines, and I think 5000 in poker and 600 in lottery if I am remember right!! YOU HAVE TO PAY TAXES (FEDERAL AND STATE) federal is 25% and states it depends WHICH ONE (usually from 3 to 5 %) so to be safe lets say 25 federal plus 5 for the state = 30% = 525$ in taxes(federal AND state) total that YOU OWN, and remember to be in the safe side ALWAYS ASK THE CASINO TO WITHOLD THE TAXES FOR YOU and when they give you the W-2G check for the “WITHOLDINGS” amounts SO YOU DOTN HAVE TO WORRY LATER ABOUT OWNING MONEY THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY PROBABLY SPEND Reply
My daughter won 2,000 for year2011 and didn’t claim if her taxes now she owes $3,000, what can we do? Reply
She should have a licensed tax preparer review her situation, preferably an Enrolled Agent (EA), a CPA, or best – a tax attorney. She may not owe the $3000. If she does owe, then the EA can help her set up a payment plan with the IRS. If she doesn’t have the money right now for professional help, then she can try the Taxpayer Advocate Service: http://www.irs.gov/Advocate Reply
I won $5000 on ultimate texas holdem at an indian casino. They took out taxes right away with no consent from me. They took out $1788. So about 35%. Also, they did not give me a sheet at all or anything. Is there something fishy going on? Reply
it could be, some bad casinos(mostly outside USA do this so THEY are taking money from their goverment), YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ASK FOR YOUR W-2G form AS SOON AS YOU HIT ANY JACKPOT also to be in the safe side since YOU HAVE TO PAY THOSE TAXES SOON OR LATER so is better to TELL THE CASINO to do it for you so you get your money MINUS the taxes SO YOU DONT HAVE TO WORRY AT THE END OF THE YEAR or risking later down the road that you DONT have the money any more SINCE you WON YOU HAVE TO REPORT IT. Reply
I won a weekly drawing at an Alabama Indian casino of $100,000. They took out $30,000 in fed tax. Will I owe anymore? I live in Florida, so I have no state tax. I have sales online of approximately $50,000 for 2013. So what I owe will be based on $150,000? Reply
My mother is 83 years old. Her total income last year was 12,456.00 (social security). She recently won 2 jackpots at a casino totaling about 10,000. She has not filed a tax return in the last few years. Is there a max she can make (total) before she has to file a tax return, or should she file regardless? Thanks! Reply
1) Is there a max she can make before she has to file a tax return for 2013? Based on the information given, your mother can make $11,499 (not including her Social Security) before she must file a Federal tax return. She is not required to file for 2013. See Table 1-1 on page 5 of Pub. 17: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf 2) Should she file regardless? If I were the tax preparer, I would advise your mother to file for 2013. If the casino reports that $10,000 to the IRS, and issues a W2-G, then the IRS may wonder why they have no tax return from your mother. More importantly, I would go so far as to advise her to file every year, even when she is not required to file. In my practice, I deal with victims of identity theft. An example is my client who was not required to file, but because he did not, an identity thief was able to file a return using my client’s identity, and cause my client unbelievable hardship. Also, if your mother files every year, then this could be helpful in the future to the executor or administrator of your mother’s estate. 3) What you didn’t ask about: Combined Income leads to taxation of Social Security, but that is OK. Combined Income is a figure used to determine if any of one’s Social Security is taxable. Don’t confuse it with Taxable Income. If your mother continues to be a winner, then be aware that her “Combined Income” could cause some of her Social Security to be taxed. But don’t let uninformed folks tell you that is a bad thing. Generally, the more she wins, the better her after-tax income will be. In other words, if she has to pay tax on her Social Security, then she is doing great. Although I don’t like to encourage gambling, let’s think positive. Let’s hope your mother wins a little more before 2013 ends. For 2013, her “Combined Income” would have to be over $25,000 before she MIGHT have to pay tax on her Social Security. Here is the calculation for Combined Income. Mother’s adjusted gross income + Nontaxable interest + ½ of your Social Security benefits = Mother’s “combined income” Here is the current situation: Judy’s Mother’s AGI (The Jackpots) $ 10,000 Nontaxable interest………………………$ 0.00 1/2 Social Security ………………………$ 6,228 Judy’s Mother’s Combined Income = ……………………………………$ 16,228 Your mother can win $8,772 more before her Social Security might be taxed a little*, and note she will have to pay income tax on that $8,772. She will still be ahead several thousand dollars. Pub. 915, Worksheet 1, is what one uses to calculate the taxable amount of Social Security that goes on Form 1040: For WORKSHEET 1, see Page 7: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p915.pdf 4) What you didn’t ask about: Keeping track of gambling losses. Going into 2014, your mother should keep track of her gambling wins and losses by maintaining a good log book that will hold up in an IRS audit. For 2014, if she has total losses that exceed her Standard Deduction, subject to the 2% AGI limitation, then she can claim the total losses on her Schedule A, up to the amount of her total winnings. See Links: Social Security Benefits Planner: http://www.ssa.gov/planners/taxes.htm Social Security Retirement: http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10035.pdf Reply
I need to make a correction: The gambling losses are not subject to the 2% AGI limitation on Schedule A. They simply go on line 28 of the Schedule A, under Other Miscellaneous Deductions: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc419.html For 2013, if your AGI is over $150,000, you will have to do the worksheet for Line 29 of the Schedule A, and your overall itemized deductions may be limited. See page A-13 of the following: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sca.pdf
Ive had 8 w2-G forms pile up here on my desk this year from jackpots over $1200.00 playing video poker, and not once were the casinos I played in even hinting they were to take out anything for Uncle Sam. It would tick me off had they done so, because thats cash Ill probably never see again. Reply
Majority of casinos are NOT obligated to TAKE YOUR TAXES BUT TO REPORT YOU, this being said, CASINOS love to give you all your “winning jackpot” and just a W-2G and a lot of times they will NOT even give it to you in the spot(when you won the jackpot) THEY WILL MAIL IT TO YOU AT THE END OF THE YEAR(that’s because casinos want to win the money back INCLUDIING THE TAXES!!) so YOU are responsible AND LEFT HOLDING the tax, SINCE IS YOUR RESPONSABILITY Reply
I have slot machine winnings over $15,000 for this year. I did not take out the taxes on any of these winnings. For Colorado, will I pay both state and federal taxes on these winnings? Reply
I am a student with a part time job in the summers making roughly 5000 of which 425 was held out for taxes. I am 22 and my parents still claim me on their taxes. I have 21,000 in gambling w2s, which is all of my winnings gambling, never quit without hitting a jackpot or losing. AI have about 20,000 in losses and have kept a log to show when and where i gambled amount lost etc. The log is all i have to prove it. I mostly gamble with just cash but i put all of my winnings in one account and periodically make withdrawals at the bank before i play. I havent done this all the time because about 8000 of the losses was cash. The question is will my gambling log suffice as proof. Also, if i had 20,000 in losses that would make my taxable income at roughly 6500 and put me in the 10 % bracket owing about 200.00 since i paid 400 in taxes from my summer job? thanks Reply
I won $2000.00 on a slot machine in a bar located in Oregon. If the IRS has a lien against me and I owe other things like school loans, state taxes in Oregon and California. Will the Oregon Lotto office just keep my winnings when I go to Salem to cash it in? Reply