Tax Form To Report Gambling Losses

Your Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. You may deduct your gambling losses for the year as Other Miscellaneous Deductions on your Schedule A, Itemized Deductions. You cannot deduct losses that are more than your winnings. You also cannot reduce your total gambling winnings by your total gambling losses and report the difference. You may deduct gambling losses only if you itemize your deductions on Form 1040 (Schedule A), and kept a record of your winnings and losses. The amount of losses you deduct can't be more than the amount of gambling income you reported on your return. Dec 20, 2019 Amount of your gambling winnings and losses. Any information provided to you on a Form W-2G. The tool is designed for taxpayers that were U.S. Citizens or resident aliens for the entire tax year for which they're inquiring. If married, the spouse must also have been a U.S. Citizen or resident alien for the entire tax year.

Tax Form To Report Gambling Losses Tax
Is Gambling Losses Tax Deductible

If you had a successful night at the slots or poker tables, you're going to have to share some of the lucky proceeds with Uncle Sam. The Internal Revenue Service generally requires that you report your gambling winnings and losses separately when you file your taxes rather than combining the two amounts.

Record Keeping

As you gamble during the year, you need to keep records of your winnings and losses so that you can support whatever figures you report on your taxes. The IRS permits you to use per-session recording, which means that instead of recording whether you won or lost each time you pull the slot machine, you can simply record your total for the session. Your records should include the date and type of gambling, where you gambled and if you gambled with anyone else, such as a home poker game. If you win more than $600, you should receive a Form W-2G from the casino.

Taxable Winnings

When figuring your gambling winnings, only include the winnings from each session rather than using losses to offset your gains. You have to include gambling winnings even if you didn't receive a Form W-2G from the casino. For example, if you gambled six times during the year, winning $100, $3,000, $4,000 and $6,000 but losing $5,000 and $2,000, your gambling winnings for the year are $13,100. This amount gets reported on line 21 of your Form 1040 tax return.

Gambling Losses

To claim your gambling losses, you have to itemize your deductions. Gambling losses are a miscellaneous deduction, but -- unlike some other miscellaneous deductions -- you can deduct the entire loss. The deduction goes on line 28 of Schedule A and you have to note that the deduction is for gambling losses. For example, if you lost $5,000 on one occasion and $7,000 on another, your total deduction is $12,000.

Gambling Loss Limitation

You can't deduct more in gambling losses than you have in gambling winnings for the year. For example, suppose you reported $13,000 in gambling winnings on Line 21 of Form 1040. Even if you lost $100,000 that year, your gambling loss deduction is limited to $13,000. Worse, you aren't allowed to carry forward the excess, so if you had $87,000 in losses you couldn't deduct last year, you can't use that to offset the gambling income from the current year.

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