Hoping I can get some clarification as I have heard a few different things. About the 30% withholding tax and wondering if anyone here has gone through the process.

I've heard different amounts on what is the starting tax rate $1200 and $5000... $1200 seems very low and probably would make me think twice about playing many tournaments. $5000 is much more reasonable.

What's it like going through claiming a refund?

If this in wrong forum please remove to appropriate one

should be anything over $5000

Are you sure?

Any tournament winnings (net) over $5000($5000.01) will cause the poker room to issue a 1099 for the whole profit.

Now, if a Canadian, I don't believe that the tournament directors are looking for out of country citizens in order to tax any smaller amount; possible I guess. You could look to another Canadian for exactitude but i believe the action amount is again , $5000.01 .

The problem with Canadians(and other not tax treaty governments) is that there will be a 30% withholding for winnings over the amount ($5000.01) and somehow the winner will have to deal with the US government to which I have come to my ignorance point.

The reason for this is that USA and Canada do not have a tax treaty. I have been led to understand that , for example, England and USA do have a tax treaty and therefore all winnings are not subscribed.

I plead guilty to this knowledge gained from this site and will gladly accept criticism/correction.

There have been a few threads on this subject in the past. Here's a response I gave a few years ago that is still applicable. In essence, any tax withheld by the US requires the filing of a US tax return to claim a refund and any refund is predicated on being able to offset gambling winnings with gambling losses and/or eligible expenses. There's no magic to it and there's no entitlement to a refund without offsetting deductions.