Claiming Gambling Losses Against Winnings
The taxpayer did not report the winnings on the tax return, and did not itemize deductions to claim the losses. The IRS claimed the taxpayer failed to report gambling winnings of $2,000. However, Tax Court determined the amount of unreported gambling winnings was $1,100. Feb 06, 2019 You are allowed to list your annual gambling losses as a miscellaneous itemized deduction on Schedule A of your tax return. If you lost as much as, or more than, you won during the year, your losses will offset your winnings. You can't reduce your gambling winnings by your gambling losses and report the difference. Rather, you report the full amount of your winnings as income and claim your losses (up to the amount of. Gambling winnings are income, the same as money you make from your job or from renting out half of your two-family house. Gambling winnings are just as much income as other somewhat “speculative” earnings you may have, such as commissions on sales (since that’s not guaranteed but depends on making the sales) or a holiday bonus (which depends on whether and how much your employer wants to.
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If you had a successful night at the slots or poker tables, you're going to have to share some of the lucky proceeds with Uncle Sam. The Internal Revenue Service generally requires that you report your gambling winnings and losses separately when you file your taxes rather than combining the two amounts.
Record Keeping
As you gamble during the year, you need to keep records of your winnings and losses so that you can support whatever figures you report on your taxes. The IRS permits you to use per-session recording, which means that instead of recording whether you won or lost each time you pull the slot machine, you can simply record your total for the session. Your records should include the date and type of gambling, where you gambled and if you gambled with anyone else, such as a home poker game. If you win more than $600, you should receive a Form W-2G from the casino.
Taxable Winnings
When figuring your gambling winnings, only include the winnings from each session rather than using losses to offset your gains. You have to include gambling winnings even if you didn't receive a Form W-2G from the casino. For example, if you gambled six times during the year, winning $100, $3,000, $4,000 and $6,000 but losing $5,000 and $2,000, your gambling winnings for the year are $13,100. This amount gets reported on line 21 of your Form 1040 tax return.
Gambling Losses
To claim your gambling losses, you have to itemize your deductions. Gambling losses are a miscellaneous deduction, but -- unlike some other miscellaneous deductions -- you can deduct the entire loss. The deduction goes on line 28 of Schedule A and you have to note that the deduction is for gambling losses. For example, if you lost $5,000 on one occasion and $7,000 on another, your total deduction is $12,000.
Gambling Loss Limitation
You can't deduct more in gambling losses than you have in gambling winnings for the year. For example, suppose you reported $13,000 in gambling winnings on Line 21 of Form 1040. Even if you lost $100,000 that year, your gambling loss deduction is limited to $13,000. Worse, you aren't allowed to carry forward the excess, so if you had $87,000 in losses you couldn't deduct last year, you can't use that to offset the gambling income from the current year.
Claiming Gambling Losses Against Winnings Taxes
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