Quote:
Originally Posted by riverph7
I don’t know if they have different standards for non USA players .
Otherwise
If you win net $5k there is no tax withholding. Anything over $5 k has tax withholding.
This doesn’t seem true to me, but I haven’t had an applicable win at the WSOP, so I don’t know if they do things differently. Like the other guy said, players should do their own DD if this important.
Withholding means they actually remove money from the win as estimated tax. And then you either get money back or owe more based on your complete tax basis when you file your annual tax return.
For non-U.S, I think they always withhold and then if the country the player is from has a tax treaty with the U.S., the player can go through a process to get that money back. That process could be fairly lengthy (1 year+).
In my experience, for US players, when you win $5001+ net, you get a w-2g form, but you get the choice to have money withheld or not. If it is not withheld, you are supposed to submit an estimated tax payment yourself in the quarter you win to avoid late fees and/or penalty. This can be done online for federal and, likely, state, and is fairly painless. But if you’ve never done it, make sure you keep the receipts for your tax return. I think 25% net win is typical for estimated tax for federal and your state, if it has income tax, may have a different amount. Estimated tax is due 6/17/24 and 9/16/24 for this and next quarter. So if your win is on 6/18/24, you have a couple extra months to make the estimated tax payment. So the only real reason not to have the money initially withheld is if you have something better to do with it between the date you win and the estimated tax due date.
There may be an amount above which they will not give you the choice to withold, but like I said, I have never had money withheld for a net win in the $5-10k range.