How Much Taxes Do You Pay On Slot Machine Winnings

| Posted on by

Taxes

The IRS isn’t leaving gambling reporting to chance. It has issued new final regulations clarifying and expanding the rules for payors of slot, bingo and keno winnings. Most notably, in response to an outcry from the gambling industry, higher ...

The IRS isn’t leaving gambling reporting to chance. It has issued new final regulations clarifying and expanding the rules for payors of slot, bingo and keno winnings. Most notably, in response to an outcry from the gambling industry, higher thresholds for reporting responsibilities were retained (IRS Reg. 1.6401-10, 12/29/16).

“Commentators overwhelmingly opposed the idea of reducing these reporting thresholds. Payors opposed lowering the thresholds because it would result in more reporting, which would increase compliance burdens for the industry,” said the IRS in the regulations. “In fact, many commentators suggested that rather than reducing the current thresholds, they should be increased to account for inflation. These final regulations do not change the existing reporting thresholds for bingo, keno, and slot machine play.”

You’re going to have to fill out a tax form. We’re going to assume that you won more than $1,200. As we saw above, you can't deduct more than you win. If you win $1500 and lose $500, you pay tax on $1000 of winnings. But if you win $500 and lose $1500, you don't get to claim a $1000 loss. The easiest solution to this problem is to simply not tax gambling winnings. You may be required to withhold 24% of gambling winnings (including winnings from bingo, keno, slot machines, and poker tournaments) for federal income tax. This is referred to as backup withholding. You should backup withhold if: The winner doesn't furnish a correct taxpayer identification number (TIN).

For taxpayers, gambling winnings are treated as taxable income on federal income tax returns, but the tax may be offset by losses up to the amount of the winnings. For example, if you win $5,000 during the year and incur losses of $4,500 in the same year, you owe tax on only $500. The losses are reported on Schedule A, but aren’t subject to the usual 2%-of-AGI floor for miscellaneous deductions.

For businesses, information reporting is required for payments of $600 or more to a taxpayer during the year. While temporary regulations had boosted the reporting thresholds for winnings from bingo games and slot machines to $1,200 and $1,500 for keno games, proposals would have lowered these amounts back to $600.

The information is reported on Form W-2G, “Certain Gambling Winnings,” which must be filed by February 28 of the following year; March 31, if filed electronically.

Now the new regulations hold the line on the reporting thresholds for bingo, slots and keno games. The regs also retained the rules, with minor modifications, on identifying information that must be provided by gamblers. In addition, they adopted an “aggregate reporting” rule, with winnings for a single gambling session being allowed as an alternative to reporting each win that exceeds the required threshold. A single session is defined as the time between a gambler placing a wager on a certain game and completing the last wager on the game before the end of the same calendar day.

How Much Taxes Do You Pay On Slot Machine Winnings Jackpot

The IRS also agreed to allow gambling institutions to use “gaming days” instead of calendar days for reporting periods if its use is uniform. Gaming days are generally used for other accounting purposes.

Winnings

How Much Taxes Do You Pay On Slot Machine Winnings 2019

Finally, the new final regulations did not include proposed rules that applied to electronically tracked systems for slot machines. The proposed regulations required reporting for winnings at least $1,200 within a calendar day session. However, the casino industry successfully argued that the technology would not support this and that it would “chill customer use.” Count this as a win for the casinos.