Can You Put Gambling Losses

Reporting your gambling winnings and losses are no exception. You benefit from ensuring that your return is correct, as you can ensure you receive the largest refund that you deserve and that you don’t have to deal with any correspondence from the IRS in the future. It’s also your responsibility to track and record all your wins and losses. While you may be able to deduct your gambling losses, gambling winnings are not directly offset by gambling losses in your tax return. You must be able to itemize deductions on Schedule A of your return in order to deduct the gambling losses, and then can only deduct an amount up to the amount of your gambling winnings. You may or may not have received a Form W-2G for your gambling winnings. To report your gambling winnings in the TaxAct® program. Gambling losses are indeed tax deductible, but only to the extent of your winnings. This requires you to report all the money you win as taxable income on your return. However, the deduction for your losses is only available if you itemize your deductions.

  1. Gambling Losses On Tax Return
  2. Where To Claim Gambling Losses
  3. Gambling Losses Tax Write Off
  4. Where Do You Put Gambling Losses On 2018 Tax Return


Hello and thanks for starting a thread in the Gambling Therapy forums


Can You Put Gambling Losses


Here at Gambling Therapy we pride ourselves on being a caring and diverse online community who can help and support you with the difficulties you’re currently facing. We understand that this might be a tough time for you, particularly if you’re new to recovery, so come here as often as you need to and participate in the forums, access online groups and connect to the live advice helpline if you need one to one support. We’re in this together!



Here on the forum you can share your experiences in a safe, supportive and accepting environment. The beauty of writing it all down is that you can take your time and you will be creating a record of your progress that you can look back on if it ever feels like you’re not moving forward. So, share as much or as little as you like but do try to stick to keeping just one thread in this forum so people know where to find you if they want to be updated on your progress or share something with you.



And on that note....


Gambling Losses On Tax Return


I’m going to hand you over to our community because I’m sure they will have some words of wisdom for you :-)



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The Gambling Therapy Team




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Gambling winnings are taxed like regular income! How would the IRS know about thisif you didn’t tell them? Simple: If you win $1200 or more on a slot or video poker machine or bingo, or cash in $10,000 or more in chips at the cage in any given day, thenyou’ll have to show your ID and fill out a tax form.

Where To Claim Gambling Losses

The IRS does let you deduct gambling losses from gambling winnings, though. Youcan’t deduct more than your winnings, of course, the IRS isn’t that stupid.You can’t say you won $1,000 and lost $5,000, for a net loss of $4,000. If thatwas your actual experience, you could apply $1,000 of your losses towards your $1,000in winnings so you wouldn’t owe any tax on your winnings.

Gambling Losses Tax Write Off

Let’s say you get lucky and have a big win. At that point you want to deduct yourlosses from your winnings to reduce your taxes. How do you find your losses? Here’swhere having a Player’s Card at the casino comes in handy. Since casinos track players’action when they have a card, the casino can give you a report of how much you lostwhen tax time comes around. Of course, it’s best if you also keep your own log ofyour play. Here’s a free Win/Loss Tracking Form (PDF)you can download.

Note that as of this writing, there is current activity in the United States Senate(bill S.972) “To Amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to prohibit any deductionfor gambling losses”. Obviously, this strikes us as rather unfair. If you won $3,000and lost $2,000, then your real winnings were only $1,000 and that’s what shouldbe taxed. But if certain legislators have their way, they’ll consider that yourincome from gambling is $3,000 and your losses don’t count.

Where Do You Put Gambling Losses On 2018 Tax Return

We are neither accountants nor lawyers so nothing in this article should be construedas a replacement for advice from a competent professional. For more info about theimpact of taxation on winnings we recommend the book The Gambler’s Guide to Taxes by Walter L. Lewis, CPA.