How does Royal Caribbean pay out large-ish casino payouts?

[PWP-001]

38 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Very unlikely any job like that will pay at least $110K/year - the IRS exemption when you work overseas.

 

This is a VERY misleading statement.

 

From 2021 IRS Pub 54:

If you meet certain requirements, you may qualify for the foreign earned income and foreign housing exclusions and the foreign housing deduction. If you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien and you live abroad, you are taxed on your worldwide income. However, you may qualify to exclude from income up to $108,700 of your foreign earnings. In addition, you can exclude or deduct certain foreign housing amounts. See Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and Foreign Housing Exclusion and Deduction, later. You may also be entitled to exclude from income the value of meals and lodging provided to you by your employer. See Exclusion of Meals and Lodging, later.

 

Part of those requirement limit the number of days the taxpayer may be in the US.

 

So, wandering off to Thailand for a summer and taking a job mean EVERY PENNY would be subject to US Taxation,

 

 

 

 

[PWP-001]

3 hours ago, rennyn said:

This has gone way beyond my original question, but...

 

 

It sure has!

 

People have shared stories describing illegal money laundering as they mentioned buying several small money orders mailed to themselves for deposit on different days to avoid reporting.

 

Another has described tax fraud, collecting non-winning tickets to claim them as their own gambling losses.

 

And several have misrepresented tax laws.

 

 

 

[RockHoundTX]

I can somewhat speak to both points being discussed. First, I think the largest hand-pay I have seen is somewhere around $30k. It was roughly a 3-4 inch stack of $100 bills. But in this case the lady was a REALLY high roller and fed them back into the "high $$" machine pretty quickly. She was getting $10k+ hand-pays about every 30-40 minutes. Per her nephew, the cruise-line basically took care of everything tax and customs related and escorted the entire family onto and off the ship (on top of flying the entire family to the cruise to begin with).

 

As for the folks talking about just opening up a foreign bank acount, this is typically a pain. I have worked outside the US a couple of times and really hated all the paperwork and time (usually a week or two) required to do this. More importantly, when you fill out your Federal Income Taxes there is a specific question on "do you have a foreign bank account?". When you answer "yes", then you have more forms to fill out. Not something I would want to lie about since the US government pretty much knows about your foreign assets from most allied nations (again, one of the reasons there is so much paperwork when you open the account). 

 

It is only when you have an absolutely obscene amount of money that things get interesting. I did work for one financial institution where the minimum account balance was $100M (ie, think Saudi prince, etc.). When backups of the account data were moved (maybe due to a large hurricane heading toward the island), the pilots moving the data had a special life insurance policy. If they had a problem, they were required to ditch the plane into the sea outside of US juristiction. At no point could this data ever enter US soil.  

[shofer]

On 10/8/2022 at 10:06 PM, luvcruzing said:

Any win over $1,200 is taxable and generates a W-2G form to report your winnings for tax purposes.  But, the government also says all winnings should be reported.

In 2006, on a Celebrity RT LA to Hawaii, I had a string of good luck @ 3 card poker.  I won about $100/day=$1400 total.  Last night I won the big Bingo prize of $3400.  Not a word said about Uncle Sam/taxes.    On a later Princess cruise, I won a few Bingo prizes and they made me fill out the tax form. Never could figure that out and my tax preparer said it didn't count as it was under $10K.

[Donsyb]

On 10/9/2022 at 12:20 AM, mom2miracles said:

Question. Why is it that when you are playing Bingo, and win a jackpot bigger than $1,500 do they tell you/remind you - over and over again, that you will be taxed? The last few cruises they announced this EVERY time a win would be in excess of $1,500. Seemed very odd to tax on such a small amount (compared to some of the wins being discussed here in the Casino). In Canada, we don't get taxed on any winnings - no matter how big or small. With that said, if we win in the US (or any Country with specific tax laws on winnings) we have to pay taxes on those funds in excess of whatever the cutoff is for that specific Country (not a Canadian regulation, but having to follow the rules in other Countries). So, in the US, we would be taxed for winnings over $10K and then file in Canada to get it back. What they warn you about in bingo seems to go against everything being said in this post. Can anyone shed some light on this?

That’s not correct. In vegas they give you a form to fill in saying you’re foreign and then you don’t pay the taxes.

[PWP-001]

23 minutes ago, Donsyb said:

That’s not correct. In vegas they give you a form to fill in saying you’re foreign and then you don’t pay the taxes.

Perhaps you mean "vegas" in another country.  Because in Las Vegas, NV, USA the following applies:

 

From IRS Pub 515:

 

Gambling winnings (Income Code 28). In general, nonresident aliens are subject to chapter 3 withholding at 30% on the gross proceeds from gambling won in the United States if that income is not effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business and is not exempted by treaty. The tax withheld and winnings are reportable on Forms 1042 and 1042-S. Chapter 4 withholding does not apply to these proceeds.

 

This is from page 38 of 57.  

 

There sure seems to be an incredible amount of misinformation and misleading statements about taxation in this thread.  

 

 

 

[Donsyb]

41 minutes ago, PWP-001 said:

Perhaps you mean "vegas" in another country.  Because in Las Vegas, NV, USA the following applies:

 

From IRS Pub 515:

 

Gambling winnings (Income Code 28). In general, nonresident aliens are subject to chapter 3 withholding at 30% on the gross proceeds from gambling won in the United States if that income is not effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business and is not exempted by treaty. The tax withheld and winnings are reportable on Forms 1042 and 1042-S. Chapter 4 withholding does not apply to these proceeds.

 

This is from page 38 of 57.  

 

There sure seems to be an incredible amount of misinformation and misleading statements about taxation in this thread.  

 

 

 

No I mean Las Vegas USA.

 

however I didn’t realise Canada doesn’t have a tax treaty! I am correct though that if you live in a country that does (as I do)  you can complete a W8-BEN to avoid the withholding. Most vegas casinos do the paperwork with/ for you these days.

[Ret MP]

16 hours ago, klfrodo said:

This is too funny.

Some people actually think they can walk in to a bank in Nassua, Cozumel, or some other foreign country and just say" Hi, I'm Bob, I want to open a bank account and deposit $25K. 🤣

 

International and National banking laws don't work that way. Can be done eventually, but I would imagine the lawyers fees and Incorporation fees would tie up a huge chunk. Much more than the IRS.

If you are responding to my post, I never said it was easy or hard, it was basically just tongue in cheek as evidenced by the examples of "Hotdog" or "Mansion".  

 

BTW, I have opened a few accounts in Europe, many years ago for a fraternal organization I was the secretary of.  No, it's not like opening an account at your local bank, that's for sure.  But, it isn't like a huge event in one's life, either.  

[BecciBoo]

If you're really interested you can follow The Traveling Gamblers on You Tube, they are avid ship casino gamblers on all the lines.  They win a lot and they cruise free A LOT!  Plus she does really good reviews.

[dbancroft]

Just an update to casino winnings and customs. I won over 15 thousand on my Oasis cruise last week. Carried 150 $100 bills in my backpack. Guest relations told me no form was needed anymore I did not believe and also asked casino host. He told me same thing no forms needed. So I was very worried stepping up to facial recognition in Jersey. Long story short I was green lighted thru and my wife and I pretended we were Bonnie and Clyde and got in our car and left.