Lottery Winning with Multiple Winners

[Alb]

I had someone call the other evening who is bringing a W-2G and other documents drafted by the Ohio Lottery Commission along with his normal tax documents.

As I understand it the Lottery Commission would only issue the W-2G under one person's name and SS#.

Also this person won and split the winnings evenly with a friend and he does have his full name, address, and SS#.

The question he posed to me is if when I prepare his taxes that based on his information I could prepare a W-2G for his friend's share so the they would share equally in the taxes.

However, if I do that I am not sure where I can deduct this on this taxpayers return. I can't see where it would go under the gambling losses portion of Schedule A nor would I find it appropriate to be on Schedule C or any other schedule.

Wouldn't it appear like the Lottery Commission would have to prodcue 2 separate W-2G's?

I have had some lottery winners before but never with multiple people so I am not sure how to approach this.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Al

[BP.]

Try here:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5754.pdf

http://www.irs.gov/instructions/iw2g/index.html

[Jesse]

I can't remember if it's on a State or Federal level, but I believe there is a form that needs to be filled out and turned in at the time of collecting your winnings to request multiple W-2G's. Otherwise they might be out of luck.

BP beat me to the punch - I guess it's on the Federal level.

[S T]

Ohio Lottery Site

I found this on the Ohio Lottery Site, so maybe this will help.

What is the procedure when two or more players split a major prize in which taxes will be accounted for?
Multiple winners splitting prizes between $600 and $5,000 must submit a form 5754 to the Ohio Lottery Claims Department after one of the winners cashes a claim at an authorized National City Bank. Prizes greater than $5,000 can be split by filing an affidavit for multiple claimants along with the original claim form. All of these forms are available at the Lottery Regional Offices.

http://www.ohiolottery.com/agents/q&a.html

Sandy