Tax on Winnings?

[gr8bowlr]

Also never, never have taxes taken out of a W2G!!!!!!!  You can write off the winnings as a loss at the bottom of schedule A of your federal tax forms, even if you do not have enough to itimize your deductions for the tax year.  As long as your losses do not excede what you have to claim as income on the front of the form 1040 as income.  Trust me, I have done it every year and have never been questioned by the IRS.

[jm002546]

   I almost made a very rude reply.  Any comments from you tax guys?

[Eduardo]

 Write winnings off as a loss? Makes no sense.

[scorpio2]

where i have trouble is with the state taxes,as our state tries to get their grubby hands on winnings,even though they are dead against a casino in our state.on winnings say in nj,and brought home here,in vt..

[cddenver]

I think the poster is saying that you can offset gambling income from jackpots (sum of W-2G's) with gambling losses from overall play, which is true.  The losses listed as deductions can not be any more than the sum of the W-2G's, even if you've got documentation that shows more losses than that. 
 
 

[jm002546]

  He also said you can take both the standard deduction and schedule Aitemized.  I wonder how he can enter both figures on only 1 line!

[cddenver]

  He also said you can take both the standard deduction and schedule A
itemized.  I wonder how he can enter both figures on only 1 line!

 
You're right on that, I didn't notice it.

[JDanno]

If you have enough deductions to make reporting on a Schedule A worthwhile then it's the best one to use. However, you have to have more than 7.5% (line 3) of your adjusted gross (from line 38 Form 1040) to make it worth while.  Another words, if your adjusted gross is $100,000,  you'd have to have more than $7500 to be able to use the Schedule A. Schedule A is such things as charitable donations, real estate taxes, etc.
Then you have to compare it to the AGI to see if you have to use that schedule.  If you have kept immaculate gambling records you can deduct your losses.
No, I'm NOT a CPA. I'm looking at my tax report at the moment!!
BUT, you can't take the standard deduction AND the Schedule A at the same time. You can compare the two and also to the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) to see which is the best to use (or in the case of the AGI) the only one to use.

[7come11]

Taxing answer for one casino that I really liked.  Was up to $800+ on a DDB at .50, started playing $1 and first hand hit 4 aces (no kicker) for another $800.
 


I was pleasantly surprised when the machine spit out an $800 ticket.
 
Don't know if that's too common, but it did that night at the President (downtown St. Louis).  The 2 people playing next to me said they never saw that.  I don't go to that casino too often, so it was the first time I ran into that. 
 
It certainly eliminates any doubt or concern anyone would have had with a $1600 ticket.
 
Anyone else see that happen before?

[shadowman]

Yes, I've had $1000 jackpots printed as a ticket. I've also cashed in tickets over $2000 with no questions asked. Most casinos realize their machines will lock up on W2G events for handpays.