Tax Question

[Scav]

Originally Posted by Port Conway Lane

I won $5,000 in a free online contest. Can I write off $1,800 in gambling losses against that? Because the contest was free I thought I couldn't but called h&r block and the guy said I could but it wouldn't be worth it unless I had enough itemized deductions on schedule A blah blah blah. I have nothing to itemize and didn't quite understand what he was trying to tell me. Any tax experts out there ? Thanks

You can write off the $1800 if it is larger then the standard deduction, which I think is $3200 this year. So unless you have an additional $1400, you might be SOL. It also depends on if they kept money for taxes up front, which I am guessing the didn't?

Quick question and I am not saying you can do this or that, but did you win this money from a US based company or off shore?

What I would do is put all your information into Turbo Tax and go through the steps and let it plan it out for you. It is a very good tool.

--Accountant in training