Really? I'll check it out.
OK, Checked it out. It does talk about netting the gains and losses for an over all win or loss on a particular occasion. (at the time redeems tokens). And in a case like this, when all I have is totals for the year and the client has no records, can we justify saying that each occasion was a loss? I wonder if the casinos will give a day to day breakdown. I'll find out.)
By the way - thank you very much for this info. I didn't know about this memorandum.
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Netting of gambling
Check out Chief Counsel Memorandum AM2008-011 dated 12/12/08.
This was on another WebBoard.
Basically it says that you can net "casual" gambling on line 21 of the 1040.
I don't know if this applies in your case, but........................Leave a comment:
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Attitude
It is all about attitude. Recent client encounters have hurt. Now a long time client unloaded a bombshell. This client is one of a group of families that I do their taxes. As it turns it was from this group that the referral came for the woman who accused me of working for the IRS.
The bombshell was a printout from different casinos with a summary of coin in and coin out. The net was a loss according to the client so I am assuming coin in means money paid to the casino. (A card is used to keep track of all this.)
No W2-G’s involved. I was certain that each had to be reported separately, but promised to do research to make really sure – to see if it could possibly be netted. The amounts are huge, but the losses are higher. To make matters worse, this is the first year in a long time that she cannot itemize otherwise so it makes about $1000 difference in tax on her return. I told her up front that it would be less of a refund for her. Since I was doing research, she left with the parting thought – “ do whatever to give me the best benefit’ – to which I answered I’d call and let her know what I find out. I was unwilling to say yes indeed I work for the IRS and so please tell your whole family that that person you sent to me was right after all.
Of course the research was pretty easy. Report the full amount of winnings and claim your losses. I also printed out a couple of Casino reviews to show that they know that also.
You may wonder why she gave me this since she doesn’t intent to report winnings? Because she thought it would help her on her taxes to have a gambling loss.
My attitude is improving. Cutting my “losses” as they say.
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