report casino winnings?

[spiritkat090909]

Hubby had Royal Flush on UTH table game on Carnival ship. It was day before return, international waters. No forms were given by the ship, no tax taken out. It was in excess of $10k.

 

We had to fill out an extra form at customs in the overflow area since we were bringing back in more than the allowed amount. We had taken onboard $5k in the form of gift cards. The customs form says that if you do NOT report all the cash you are carrying, it can be seized. It also says you cannot divide the amount and have other people carry for you (we were alone anyway) or put it in other forms of cash equivalents, like gift cards. So.

 

We paid our ship account in cash and still had more than we could carry off without reporting. (I had a profitable week, too.) I was more than a little nervous, but it was Texas port and things went smooth and nothing to worry about. We DID get off as soon as we could, self assist priority since EVERYONE in the casino knew we would be carrying a lot of cash. Nice problem to have.

 

I'm not sure about the income reporting aspects of international earnings and will have to consult our tax expert next year.:D

[taxesbyt]

It's happened to me on Carnival in the Caribbean and on Royal in the Med.

 

Yes, if you win more tha $1199, you will be issued a W2G, or a 1099G either immediately or before the cruise ends. Before they pay out the cash, you will have to prove identity and nationality. I don't believe they do this if you are Canadian but I could be mistaken.

 

No, you don't have to declare the winnings to Customs unless you are entering the US with more than 10K in cash.

 

 

Side note: United States Internsl Revenue Service doesn't care if you win $1 gambeling or $5000 gambeling. The winnings are considered earned income and is to be reported. Yes, even that $1 that you won on your lottery ticket.

Now, whether you declare or not is up to you.

 

But also remember the IRS allows you to write off your yearly gambling losses up to the amount of your winnings. So if you win $2000 and you have spent $2000 over the year then it breaks even and you don't pay tax on it.

[riddle]

Again, you can only write off the wins versus the losses if you itemize deductions. If you do not have enough to itemize you can look at it either way but if the standard deduction is significantly higher than what you itemize you will pay taxes on the win over $1200 regardless of losses.

[wbingham]

On 10/29/2016 at 7:51 PM, taxesbyt said:

 

But also remember the IRS allows you to write off your yearly gambling losses up to the amount of your winnings. So if you win $2000 and you have spent $2000 over the year then it breaks even and you don't pay tax on it.

 

Yes, but you have to itemize and have proof of those losses in the form of casino receipts, loosing tickets, or similar.  You cannot simply claim that you lost $2000 through the year on other bets and move on.  You have to be able to provide evidence as well a detailed description of the dates, locations, and other people present of all gambling that you did in that year.

 

"The tax office, whether it’s the IRS or some other institution, would expect you to keep an accurate date of when the gambling activity took place and what the outcome was. You also must add the address of the venue as well as the names of the people with whom you gambled."

 

So if you win 2k on a cruise ship casino in June and don't have a record of wins and losses for every time you gambled leading up to then; good luck on trying to claim those losses as deductions.  And YES, they most likely will contact people you name.

Edited January 27, 2023 by wbingham

[cruiserbear55]

18 hours ago, wbingham said:

 

Yes, but you have to itemize and have proof of those losses in the form of casino receipts, loosing tickets, or similar.  You cannot simply claim that you lost $2000 through the year on other bets and move on.  You have to be able to provide evidence as well a detailed description of the dates, locations, and other people present of all gambling that you did in that year.

 

"The tax office, whether it’s the IRS or some other institution, would expect you to keep an accurate date of when the gambling activity took place and what the outcome was. You also must add the address of the venue as well as the names of the people with whom you gambled."

 

So if you win 2k on a cruise ship casino in June and don't have a record of wins and losses for every time you gambled leading up to then; good luck on trying to claim those losses as deductions.  And YES, they most likely will contact people you name.

  

  Do you realize you are responding to a post in a thread that is over six years old?