Hi , so I was sent a letter from the tax man about reporting tourney income,m in 2015, however I lost a substantial amount in the wsop of 2015 so I don't have winnings, I tried calling the rio to get my tourney statement but was on hold for hours, can anyone help me figure out the best way to get all my tourney losses from wsop 2015

Unless you itemize your deductions on your taxes, it isn't going to matter what the tournament losses were. You can't net out the results from one day to the next.

thanks for you help, but I'm filing as a gambler, i need to find out how to get a 2015 tourney statement from rio( a lot harder than it seems )

If you have the tourney receipt, just match it up with the results posted on their website. If you are playing them regularly, might want to think about banking at the casino. Then you can pull a statement any time you want.

I'd try a letter or email then. You're more likely to get a response than hanging on the phone for hours. Depending on the size of the tournament, they may or may not have kept a record.

I do hope you filed in 2016 as a gambler and have kept current on your self-employment taxes. Good luck.

It doesn't matter that you are a Pro. All 'good' citizens are responsible for reporting gambling wins and losses. It's just as a Pro they end up on the same form 'page' and net out there before income taxes are calculated. I think you realize this and just want to get things resolved with the Rio ... they are pretty busy right now with a tournament or two going on. (And why aren't you there?)

Just re-reading your OP, did you leave off tournament income that was reported on a 1099 since you knew it was offset by losses at the Rio? That's definitely not going to work, especially if you filed as a gambler.

If I were you I would take all my 'stuff' to a tax prep establishment and have them look through 2014-16 tax returns and then refile all 3 of them if need be. You will pay a better rate for giving them 3 to do at the same time and that's how far back you can go to refile ... perhaps you are owed some refunds? You never know and since you are a gambler this is 100% deductable as a business expense without needed to reach the threashold of itemized deductions. GL

I am not a citizen but want to be a good alien. Where do I report my lottery tickets that never win me anything?

I will fall for it ... There is a guy who drives around our area and cleans out the trash cans near the Keno scanners 'just in case' he wins a big jackpot and thus can offset the winnings with these loser tickets.

I've always told folks to make sure they win the Lotto in January so they have all year to collect these tickets and reduce their taxes!! GL


PS .. There is also a '2nd chance' drawing that this guy might be more interested in, but it's more interesting to think about how he's going to explain to the tax auditor how he was in 2 bowling alleys at the same time!!

So if I win something in the state lottery, I can deduct my losing lottery tickets from that? I had no idea about that. The country where I paid taxes before didn't tax gambling winnings.

Each state can have it's own rules regarding deduction of losses as a 'part time' gambler, but on your Federal tax return you 'should' be able to deduct losses up to the amount you have won. Filing as a 'part timer' and professional are handled differently but in the end, yes, you can deduct all your scratch offs and Keno slips as a gambling loss. GL