witholding taxes on winnings

[Bigsmc]

Originally Posted by GBBob

Even for the IRS, that's crazy...I've never written a wager down in a program in my life. Well..maybe once, but still...

Couldn't tell you the last time I even bought a program. My racing forms get recycled (printed on both sides) and when the races are over, they get tossed. Any scribblings on them would be incomprehensable to an IRS agent. I would have to rent a storage space to keep them for audit possibilities.

[skippy3481]

As long as you have tickets, the IRS is not going to bother you. They can ask for programs all they want, but the burden is on them to prove that those tickets are not mine and in my experience they really dont give a damn. As long as nothing looks real sketchy, they are not going to do the legwork required to even attempt to verify the tickets.

Dunbar,
I dont have a mortage and i still itemize. It all depends on what your doing with your money. Lot of ways to get deductions now a days. You are correct though if your taking the standard deduction there is nothing you can do. In that case the government is giving u a bigger deduction then you could normally get so your already getting some tax benefits out of it.

The worst part is that "signers" are above the line, that is they effect your adjusted gross income and a lot of credits are based on your AGI... so even though you can offset wins with itemizing, you can lose out on other items where you would have qualified such as the child tax credit, college tuition costs, and exemption allowances.

It is total BS that even though you have equal losses to offset wins, your wins are added to your AGI, then your tax credits are based on your AGI, and then you take your standard (or itemized) deduction. Only way to get around that is claim professional gambler status that Dunbar mentioned.

So not only are you getting f'd by the racetrack with 25% takeout on exotics, then the IRS gives it to you if you lucky enough to hit a few signers.

Dunbar mentioned it but you get really royally screwed if you were taking the standard deduction to begin with.

[herkhorse]

Originally Posted by SundaySilence

The worst part is that "signers" are above the line, that is they effect your adjusted gross income and a lot of credits are based on your AGI... so even though you can offset wins with itemizing, you can lose out on other items where you would have qualified such as the child tax credit, college tuition costs, and exemption allowances.

It is total BS that even though you have equal losses to offset wins, your wins are added to your AGI, then your tax credits are based on your AGI, and then you take your standard (or itemized) deduction. Only way to get around that is claim professional gambler status that Dunbar mentioned.

So not only are you getting f'd by the racetrack with 25% takeout on exotics, then the IRS gives it to you if you lucky enough to hit a few signers.

Dunbar mentioned it but you get really royally screwed if you were taking the standard deduction to begin with.

You hit the nail on the head, total BS. I lost the child tax credit this year, even though I was able to offset my winnings.

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by SundaySilence

The worst part is that "signers" are above the line, that is they effect your adjusted gross income and a lot of credits are based on your AGI... so even though you can offset wins with itemizing, you can lose out on other items where you would have qualified such as the child tax credit, college tuition costs, and exemption allowances.

It is total BS that even though you have equal losses to offset wins, your wins are added to your AGI, then your tax credits are based on your AGI, and then you take your standard (or itemized) deduction. Only way to get around that is claim professional gambler status that Dunbar mentioned.

So not only are you getting f'd by the racetrack with 25% takeout on exotics, then the IRS gives it to you if you lucky enough to hit a few signers.

Dunbar mentioned it but you get really royally screwed if you were taking the standard deduction to begin with.

Right. The effect on AGI penalizes even those who ARE able to deduct losses by itemizing.

Filing as a pro gets around those problems but creates other issues. The self-employment tax comes into play, and that will add as much as another 14% of your net profit from gambling to your tax bill. If someone is already itemizing, filing as a pro is better only if expenses exceed some threshold amount that depends on tax bracket and how close the taxpayer's income is to the social security max.

And there are state and local income tax issues, too. Some states flat out prohibit deducting gambling losses from wins. And some states make filing as a professional gambler even harder than the IRS does.

No one is in a rush to give a gambler a tax break.

--Dunbar