Gambling Winnings

[juancarlosgarciasanchez]

Hello -

Both my wife and I just came back from the MSC Seashore cruise and had a wonderful time. Also both of us each won a jackpot of over $1200 in the casino. Question - After winning over $1200, neither one of us had to fill out a 1099 (W-2G) tax form and no taxes were taken out.  Is this common ? Thanks 

Edited September 12, 2022 by juancarlosgarciasanchez

[phissy]

First, we all want to know what you were playing at the Casino? 😉

And, any tips for the rest of us?

[Bgwest]

Winnings? Those really exist?

 

Who knew. 

[Inveterate Cruiser]

Technically you should have been given a 1099 (W2G) if you are a US citizen but I have heard that not every cruise line is compliant with IRS requirements. 

[Bead Pirate]

You have been "gifted" by MSC. As others have stated the 1099 varies from cruise line to cruise line (even ship to ship). You are more likely to get a 1099 on Royal than Celebrity and about 50/50 om MSC and NCL.

 

Was on Independence for a 3 day and got 5 of the darned things...

[mscdivina2016]

2 hours ago, Bead Pirate said:

 

 

Was on Independence for a 3 day and got 5 of the darned things...

Those things are just useless pieces of paper, unless you volunteered your correct information. 😁

[kwokpot]

15 hours ago, juancarlosgarciasanchez said:

Hello -

Both my wife and I just came back from the MSC Seashore cruise and had a wonderful time. Also both of us each won a jackpot of over $1200 in the casino. Question - After winning over $1200, neither one of us had to fill out a 1099 (W-2G) tax form and no taxes were taken out.  Is this common ? Thanks 

They may send it out to by mail after the fact. In any case whether or not you receive the forms you will need to remember and report the winnings when you do your 2022 Federal taxes since they will most assuredly be reporting it to the IRS.  

[Paphillyguy]

7 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

They may send it out to by mail after the fact. In any case whether or not you receive the forms you will need to remember and report the winnings when you do your 2022 Federal taxes since they will most assuredly be reporting it to the IRS.  

This is not true.  MSC does not report gambling winnings since they are won outside the US.  

[mscdivina2016]

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

They may send it out to by mail after the fact. In any case whether or not you receive the forms you will need to remember and report the winnings when you do your 2022 Federal taxes since they will most assuredly be reporting it to the IRS.  

Under what SS number??  Name and address are meaningless.

 After the issues I constantly have with them I wouldn't trust them with monopoly money nevermind my SS number.

[kwokpot]

3 hours ago, Paphillyguy said:

This is not true.  MSC does not report gambling winnings since they are won outside the US.  

 All cruises lines have to sail outside the US, yet they report the winnings to the IRS. 

[mscdivina2016]

1 minute ago, kwokpot said:

 All cruises lines have to sail outside the US, yet they report the winnings to the IRS. 

And just how do they that?

[kwokpot]

2 hours ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Under what SS number??  Name and address are meaningless.

 After the issues I constantly have with them I wouldn't trust them with monopoly money nevermind my SS number.

 

3 hours ago, Paphillyguy said:

This is not true.  MSC does not report gambling winnings since they are won outside the US.  

https://www.sapling.com/10045384/pay-taxes-money-won-cruise-ship

[kwokpot]

So it seems that MSC doesn't issue 1099-G statements but you are technically responsible to report jackpot winnings over$1,200 in one win.

[kwokpot]

2 hours ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Under what SS number??  Name and address are meaningless.

 After the issues I constantly have with them I wouldn't trust them with monopoly money nevermind my SS number.

I didn't realize/remember that MSC doesn't collect a SS # when paying out casino jackpots (We have only taken 1 MSC cruise 5 years ago, our second will be next week). There are plenty of cruiselines and ships that collect your SS# when paying out jackpots but don't immediately give you a 1099-G form. You would then need to get the 1099-G forms at the end of the cruise from the casino cashier or post cruise contact the cruiseline. The reason I'm familiar with the rules is my husband and I report casino winnings in the 6 figures and we work very, very, judiciously with our tax accountant on how to report casino winnings. In fact we were just challenged by the IRS on our 2020 taxes on how we reported our casino winnings (how we reported it vs the 1099-G records) and we received a confirmation that the IRS accepted the way we reported our gambling income. Believe me when I say there's A LOT of record keeping. 

Edited September 12, 2022 by kwokpot

[mscdivina2016]

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

So it seems that MSC doesn't issue 1099-G statements but you are technically responsible to report jackpot winnings over$1,200 in one win.

We all know how that will work out. Even if they did have a 1099g.

How are they going to get my real SS number?

Without that there is a dead end basically.  Even if they ask for it, I did not bring my card so all I could do is guess. 

 

MSC can't get my reservation right over and over again, cannot trust them with paperwork 😁

[kwokpot]

14 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

We all know how that will work out. Even if they did have a 1099g.

How are they going to get my real SS number?

Without that there is a dead end basically.  Even if they ask for it, I did not bring my card so all I could do is guess. 

 

MSC can't get my reservation right over and over again, cannot trust them with paperwork 😁

I hope you're being facetious because you would be committing a Federal offence if you give out a false SS# to a casino when requiring to fill out a 1099-G form. 

[nyc12345]

3 hours ago, kwokpot said:

I didn't realize/remember that MSC doesn't collect a SS # when paying out casino jackpots (We have only taken 1 MSC cruise 5 years ago, our second will be next week). There are plenty of cruiselines and ships that collect your SS# when paying out jackpots but don't immediately give you a 1099-G form. You would then need to get the 1099-G forms at the end of the cruise from the casino cashier or post cruise contact the cruiseline. The reason I'm familiar with the rules is my husband and I report casino winnings in the 6 figures and we work very, very, judiciously with our tax accountant on how to report casino winnings. In fact we were just challenged by the IRS on our 2020 taxes on how we reported our casino winnings (how we reported it vs the 1099-G records) and we received a confirmation that the IRS accepted the way we reported our gambling income. Believe me when I say there's A LOT of record keeping. 

 

Is there a trick to how you are winning?  I wish I am in your boat winning so frequently that you have to keep track of all the winnings.

[Paphillyguy]

14 hours ago, kwokpot said:

So it seems that MSC doesn't issue 1099-G statements but you are technically responsible to report jackpot winnings over$1,200 in one win.

This is correct, MSC does not report winnings.  Just like in the USA for money won under the $1,200, you are supposed to claim that all on your tax return.  

[juancarlosgarciasanchez]

I thank everyone for their reply and our three jackpot wins came from gambling between $5 - $8 per spin on the slots. Also, even with both of us playing with the same card, we couldn't generate the 9,999 points required for a free cruise, but we in the past have received fully comp ( less taxes ) 7 night balconies cruises for around 5,000 casino points. Thanks 

Edited September 13, 2022 by juancarlosgarciasanchez

[phissy]

3 minutes ago, juancarlosgarciasanchez said:

I thank everyone for their reply and our three jackpot wins came from gambling between $5 - $8 per spin on the slots. Thanks 

Thanks so much  for this information.
Helps the rest of us who don’t play tables. I guess I need to stop playing the “ cheap” slots.🙄

Edited September 13, 2022 by phissy

[garycarla]

The correct form is a w2G for slots. Not a 1099.

 

Yes, you are supposed to report all winnings, but who here won money on a cruise.  Even with a $1200 win, it usually goes back into the machine. Therefore, no win.

 

Some cruiselines do fill out the W2g and submit it. Not all of them will due to where there corporate offices are.

 

[kwokpot]

16 hours ago, garycarla said:

The correct form is a w2G for slots. Not a 1099.

 

Yes, you are supposed to report all winnings, but who here won money on a cruise.  Even with a $1200 win, it usually goes back into the machine. Therefore, no win.

 

Some cruiselines do fill out the W2g and submit it. Not all of them will due to where there corporate offices are.

 

Correct, I misstated the form. And to answer you question, the majority of the W2G forms my husband gets annually is from the cruiselines, since we spend so much time on cruises. 

[garycarla]

Kwokpot:  thanks for reply.

I am assuming you have gotten the W2g from other cruiselines?   Do you know of others besides MSC that does not do the W2G?

 

Also, if you could answer in just a few sentences how you were reporting the gambling winnings that caused a "discussion": with the IRS?   Guessing that almost everyone just lists them, pays taxes and that is it.  But, there are some that say you can report "session winnings" meaning a much lower tax.

 

[kwokpot]

51 minutes ago, garycarla said:

Kwokpot:  thanks for reply.

I am assuming you have gotten the W2g from other cruiselines?   Do you know of others besides MSC that does not do the W2G?

 

Also, if you could answer in just a few sentences how you were reporting the gambling winnings that caused a "discussion": with the IRS?   Guessing that almost everyone just lists them, pays taxes and that is it.  But, there are some that say you can report "session winnings" meaning a much lower tax.

 

Yes, Carnival, Royal, Celebrity, NCL, and Virgin all issue W2Gs. With regards to the IRS, you hit it right on the head; we utilize the 'sessions' method of reporting gambling winnings. My husband uses his cellphone to take notes and also sets up lines of credit on land-based casinos and takes markers as another way to track cash flow. We had used the sessions method for several years and there wasn't any issue until our 2020 tax return. It wasn't an audit but a letter saying our tax return didn't match the W2G's reported to the IRS. We replied that you didn't check the worksheet that was attached explaining how we came to our entry. It took about 4 months for the IRS to reply that they accepted our calculations for gambling winnings. This resolution letter came about a month ago. We will continue to use the same reporting method. 

The issue is the IRS hasn't specified what constitutes a gambling 'session', so it's all up to interpretation. There are proposals to specify and codify but those have yet to be enacted. 

Edit: We have literally spent hours with our tax accountant on this issue. 

Edited September 18, 2022 by kwokpot

[garycarla]

Thank you very much.  The whole gambling thing with the IRS is a mess.  I have studied the session thing and going to do that next year.  And, am going to submit a correction to this past year using that as well.  One extra question.  What session have you used?  Year, each casino visit, each trip or daily?   As said, IRS has not made it clear, and even if one person gets one way accepted, it does not mean the next will. I would add LOL - but it is not funny!

 

P.S. 

I WILL NOT WASTE ANY TIME DISCUSSING IF THERE SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT BE A TAX IN THE FIRST PLACE or on WINNINGS.  Not gonna waste brain cells on that.