Casino Reviews

Canadians wining jackpots in Canada do not have to pay tax on those winnings, however if  you win a jackpot over $1200 in the US, taxes are due and usually collected on the spot. The casino will prepare the appropriate tax slip for you to use in filing your income taxes. If you happen to be a Canadian, they will prepare a 1042-S foreign persons US source income subject to with holding form and deduct 30% of your winnings right on the spot! This comes as a surprise to many people and they are left wondering how or if they will get their money back. If you won a jackpot last year it is time to file your income tax claim and get some or maybe all of that money back that you won in the casino.

Our last post discussed Casino Slot Machine Win Loss Statements, why you need them and how to get them. Once you have them you can begin to get all of the tax forms and think about filing your tax forms. This particular post is focused on what Canadians need to do if you win a jackpot larger than $1200!

A bit Daunting at First

The list we have assembled below may seem a bit daunting at first, however if you follow the steps outlined below and you read all of the documentation, you should not have any problems. Remember that this approach is for non-residents, Canadians in particular. It is also a simplified approach and for gambling winnings only. If you have other sources of income then you may need a professional to assist you in completing the tax forms.

Step by Step Approach to Filing Income Tax Forms for Slot Machine Jackpot Winnings

Here is a short step by step approach, which we will expand on later in the post:

• Request win / loss statements from all casinos for the tax year in question
• Assemble all 1042-s Forms
• Download W-7 form and instructions from IRS web site
• Read instructions for W-7
• Decide if you need to apply for an IRS ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number)
• If so assemble approved identification papers and fill out form
• Download 1040NR US Nonresident Alien Income Tax Return & instructions
• Read instructions for 1040 NR
• Complete 1040NR and attached 1042-S documents and win / loss documents
• Make a copy of everything for your records
• Send the following into the IRS
• Completed W-7
• Identification documentation
• Completed 1040NR
• Copies of Win / Loss statements
• All 1042-S forms

Once  you have done all of this you are ready to send your tax claim into the IRS and it will probably take a month or two before you hear back from them , hopefully with your tax rebate.

Documentation Certifying Your Identity

In our case we needed to have a passport copy made and certified that it was a true copy. The only people that can do this as far as the US government is concerned is the Canadian passport office. Turns out that the passport office does this for free and if you drop your request off and pick it up they can complete the request within 3 or 4 business days. Make sure you take your completed W-7 in with you to show that why you need the copy of your passport certified.

Of course you can mail it in as well, however it will take longer to process and return to you. When you send in the request, you will also need a simple letter stating the following:

• Date
• Subject
• To Whom it may concern
• Statement as to what you need and why
• Printed name and address
• Signature

That is what we have learned so far about Filing Income Tax Forms for Slot Machine Jackpot Winnings. We are currently waiting for a response and will add a new post when we get our money back. If you decide to go to a professional be prepared to hand over a significant chunk of your tax money that is returned. They do not work for free or cheaply.

We would like to hear from other folks that have gone through this process and anything they have learned about getting their money back. Well written comments that are helpful to our readers with links will be approved. We are looking for comments that are helpful and not just links to another site.

Most people never have to be concerned about casino win loss statements, however if you do then you are one of the lucky ones who has won a jackpot and  needs to file an IRS tax statement to claim some of your money back. Canadians are automatically taxed at source at a rate of 30% on any winnings over $1200 in the United States. We recently had this experience and stated with a win of $1329, only to lose $399 to taxes with held at the casino for tax purposes. Apparently Americans do not have to pay the tax up front, but they do have to show this gambling income on their tax forms and pay the appropriate taxes. So what does all of this have to do with a casino slot machine win loss statement.

Claim Losses against your Jackpot income

Well if you feel that if you lost a great deal of money in the tax year that you won your jackpot, you can claim this loss against the jackpot that you won and reduce the amount of tax that you paid. The only way to be able to request a win loss statement is to ask for one from the casino that you play at. To do this you must have used a slot card which identifies you to the casino and tracks the amount of money you pay into the machine as well as your winnings. For more information on casino slot cards and all of the benefits of a slot card, click here.

How do I request a Win Loss Statement

As long as you are using a slot card when you are gambling at the slots you will be able to request a casino slot machine win loss statement at the end of each year.  Each casino company is a bit different. however for most, all you have to do is go to their web site and search around until you find a link that tells you how to request a win loss statement. Some allow you to do this online and you can download a pdf almost immediately. In other cases you will have to fill in a form and either send by mail or by fax. Once your request is received, you will receive your report within 5 to 7 business days in most cases.

Surprising Casino Win Loss Statments

Most people know that you might start off with, lets say $50 and during an evening you might win a number of small jackpots which of course you use to continue gambling. On a particularly good night you might turn your original $50 over many times so that it looks like you have gambled maybe $300 or even more. At the end of the night using this example if you finally lost your $50,  your win  loss statement for that day would show you gambled $300, won $250 and lost $50! It is this loss of $50 that you want to claim against your jackpot that you paid tax on. We play nickel machines most of the time and at one casino we apparently played $43 798 and won $43, 502 for a net loss of $296! This was over a period of a year and represented a visit to the casino once a week approximately on average! Amazing but true!

Summarize your Statements of Casino wins and Losses

Request all of your win loss statements from all casinos which you have a slot card for. You can add up the wins and losses for all of these casinos to show what your total loss was to justify that the tax deducted should be returned to you or at least part of it depending on how big a jackpot you won.

Our next post will discuss in general terms what you need to do with these win loss statements, were to find the tax forms if you are a Canadian and how to arrange to file your taxes with the IRS. We are in the process of doing this for the past year and hope to receive a refund from the IRS.

If you have had experience making claims of this sort, feel free to leave a comment. All comments that we well written and helpful to our readers will be considered for being included with our posts. We will even include a link if requested for quality comments.