Gambling winnings should NOT be taxed

[MarvinHagler]

In my country (Australia) ALL gambling winnings and profits are 100% tax free.

You don't have to declare it because it is considered a hobby.

In the USA and other countries gambling winnings are treated the same as income and gambling companies are required by law to withhold federal income taxes.

If I had to pay taxes I would quit gambling. The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

[kotajikikox]

In my country (Australia) ALL gambling winnings and profits are 100% tax free.

You don't have to declare it because it is considered a hobby.

In the USA and other countries gambling winnings are treated the same as income and gambling companies are required by law to withhold federal income taxes.

If I had to pay taxes I would quit gambling. The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

While I completely support your position here and believe that gambling winning should not be taxed yet governments has their own way of treating this and many countries that has taxes in gambling considered this a money making machine  to add funds in their economy.

and for me this is normal because you risked in gambling like what you said for fun and hobby so i think your winning is just a bonus right? then why not give portion to the government because still that is worth a risk.

[Charles-Tim]

If I had to pay taxes I would quit gambling. The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Only few gamblers are paying tax. Assuming someone has lost $1000 in gambling. If the person use $10 to win $20, he will not be taxed until he won all the $1000 that he lost. This is how crypto and gambling are taxed. Anyone losing already will not be taxed. Maybe this can be different in some countries but I doubt that.

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

According to what I found out online, gambling winning is not taxed in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In my country, gambling is taxed. But as most gamblers are losing more than win, it means most of them will not be taxed if they losses is more than their winning. The people I see payed the tax are those that won huge amount of money at once.

Government earn most gambling taxes from the gambling platforms and not from most people that are gambling.

[Reatim]

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

I think it makes sense that casinos or other gambling platforms are taxed because they are running a business, but gambling winnings are not really an income because it is not a job.

besides most gamblers gamble secretly anyway so why would they want to file it on their tax fees.

[Davidvictorson]

In my country, gambling is taxed. But as most gamblers are losing more than win, it means most of them will not be taxed if they losses is more than their winning. The people I see payed the tax are those that won huge amount of money at once.

Government earn most gambling taxes from the gambling platforms and not from most people that are gambling.

Good point Charles.

I have been reading the Internal Board of Revenue stand on this and it doesn't seem to be clear to me. For instance, here they said your tax on winnings is deducted at source. And my confusion is that does the casino or sports betting platform deduct the tax from the winnings before handling over the remainder to the winner? I know this is done when we eat at a restaurant or buy groceries but is this the case with gambling winnings?

This is to inform the general public, especially owners and operators of casino, gaming centres, pools betting, sport betting, lotteries etc. on the need to deduct the mandatory 5% withholding tax at source on every winning.

[Moreno233]

In my country (Australia) ALL gambling winnings and profits are 100% tax free.

You don't have to declare it because it is considered a hobby.

In the USA and other countries gambling winnings are treated the same as income and gambling companies are required by law to withhold federal income taxes.

If I had to pay taxes I would quit gambling. The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

It depends on the tax system being operated in the country. Some countries taxes every profit made at the point of the account receiving credit. Whereas in some countries, taxes depends on the source of income and varies accordingly, with some items under tax exemption and in this case, the individual have to state their sources of income to know the appropriate taxes that will apply. In my country, cryptocurrency and proceeds from gambling are not taxed, just few items are taxed but those items that fall into the category of taxable incomes are heavily taxed. It is the duty of the individual to declare his taxes to be issued a tax clearance certificate.

[yahoo62278]

Paying taxes on winnings is 1 thing, but here in the USA they fuck ya 6 ways from Sunday. Let's say you go to a casino and play slots. You put $1000 into a machine and hit a bonus, the tax threshold is $1200. On your bonus you win $1201 total. You are taxed for the whole $1201, not $201 of profit. Same goes if you put $5000 in a machine and win $1200, you're down $3800 and still paying taxes.

It's all a joke.

[stompix]

If I had to pay taxes I would quit gambling. The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Only few gamblers are paying tax. Assuming someone has lost $1000 in gambling. If the person use $10 to win $20, he will not be taxed until he won all the $1000 that he lost. This is how crypto and gambling are taxed. Anyone losing already will not be taxed. Maybe this can be different in some countries but I doubt that.

Plenty that do so, tax only separate winnings on each ticket played directly, so you could have lost 100 bets before you will pay whatever tax is set for the winning one, Germany makes you pay a tax of 5% directly on the bet, you win you pay 5%, you lose..you lose.
It becomes easier with online casinos you will own the tax only on what you get out, but even so, they won't care if you have lost 2000 in another casino and you cashed out 4000 in a second one you will pay on your winning. The majority EU countries that do tax the gambler do it like this.

[taufik123]

If I had to pay taxes I would quit gambling. The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Only few gamblers are paying tax. Assuming someone has lost $1000 in gambling. If the person use $10 to win $20, he will not be taxed until he won all the $1000 that he lost. This is how crypto and gambling are taxed. Anyone losing already will not be taxed. Maybe this can be different in some countries but I doubt that.
-snip-

So the more losses that occur, there will be no taxes paid before the gambler goes beyond the amount of their losses or hits a bigger jackpot.

But is there no time span on the number of losses that occur, because of course many people have lost quite a lot in the past and then go back to gambling at the same casino with a smaller capital.

The tax rate at the federal level in the US is calculated like a regular income tax with a progressive tax trough of 10%-37%, and it also depends on the total taxable income.

[Ojinga]

In my country (Australia) ALL gambling winnings and profits are 100% tax free.

You don't have to declare it because it is considered a hobby.

In the USA and other countries gambling winnings are treated the same as income and gambling companies are required by law to withhold federal income taxes.

If I had to pay taxes I would quit gambling. The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

the gamblers are not meant to pay any tax because the casino gambling are paying tax to the government, so it's not right for a winner to pay any tax if only the casino company make this as their new law. And if they try to input this as their new policy then they should be ready to lose more customers all over the global, cause no one would use money to place a bet and win and later lose the money by paying for tax it's unbearable. And if any country trys to make it as their policy and also pass behind and take tax from the casino company, that means they're killing the gambling lifestyle.

[Assface16678]

Well, in the Philippines, I think they have a tax on those casinos that use centralised or fiat currency, either online or physically. It may not be declared, but in some way, there is a hidden way the government could implement a tax on your gambling winnings, maybe not directly to the customer but to the casino. That's why there are fees or something that you need to pay without knowing in a casino. Thats why crypto currency gambling is the best choice if you don't want your winnings to be taxed by the government because your winnings could go straight to your crypto wallet and you could convert your assets in order to use them for daily living. Even though KYC is going around or being implemented in most casinos, even crypto casinos, there is no way that the government could impose a tax on your earnings in crypto currency.

[noormcs5]

In my country (Australia) ALL gambling winnings and profits are 100% tax free.

You don't have to declare it because it is considered a hobby.

In the USA and other countries gambling winnings are treated the same as income and gambling companies are required by law to withhold federal income taxes.

If I had to pay taxes I would quit gambling. The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Every country may have different rules but as you said the Australian government think it is a hobby and they do not tax it. But what about the Australian people? Do they also consider it a hobby or treat it as a money making activity? I think the people of Australia are extremely lucky to have this rule in place, else in most parts of the world, the government would not let go of any tax collecting opportunity.

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

Most of the people in my country would not pay the taxes on gambling. Just as an human nature, we try to avoid tax as much as we can. However i like your point that gambling operator can tax themselves just like if anyone is doing job, the organization detucts taxes from their salaries and deposit in government accounts. Same can be done by the gambling operators so that people are encouraged to pay tax but tax should be on the net profits and not on the deposits.

[mr_random]

Unless you win back all the lost amount on the casino, the profit is not deducted by government. The main point is to be profitable in the gambling, even if I had to pay the 10% of the total winnings, I agree to pay the required amount to avoid the hassle. Depending on the point of the view, your account is also risk-free from gambling scam since they are also interested to be regulated by government to show the truthfulness of the gambling platform, IMHO.

[TopTort777]

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

I think it makes sense that casinos or other gambling platforms are taxed because they are running a business, but gambling winnings are not really an income because it is not a job.

besides most gamblers gamble secretly anyway so why would they want to file it on their tax fees.

You would be surprised how many things are taxed today In my country, if I would send you 2000 EUR as a present, you would have to pay income tax from it But most stupid is that pension is taxed. You work and pay taxed to get a pension when you retire, but when you retire you pay tax again, because government consider your pension as income. Such a bs! As to gambling tax, the amount you win in my country is considered as income as well. However, you got taxed only if your win more than 5k per month. I dont find if fair thing to do, as government does not risk anything. If I win, they get tax. If I lose, they should cashback me a little. That would be fair That would be their investment in to me and me paying tax.

[retreat]

Sometimes a country needs to impose taxes on the gambling industry to discourage people from gambling and gain income from the industry. Especially in countries like the US where the gambling industry is quite massive, they need to regulate and tax the winnings generated from gambling to be able to advance their economy. And even though Australia does not tax gambling winnings, each state is given the right to tax gambling winnings - and when you gamble you will usually be subject to gambling tax and especially for professional gamblers they need to report their winnings to be taxed. So the gambling tax system in Australia is different, but the outcome is the same - but I agree that gambling winnings should not be taxed.

[Kelward]

People indirectly pay taxes without knowing it, when you enter a shop to buy something, you'll be paying value added tax on what you bought, also when you earn, the payee has deducted tax from the amount that you're entitled to receive and the government is the receiver of these taxes. I feel that in countries like Australia, where gambling is not taxed, their governments can still be collecting income taxes from the gambling companies, who will remit it from the percentages of gamblers bets. Tax is the major source of income of governments and they are therefore entitled to every income that is made in their country, whether directly or indirectly including gambling..

[OgNasty]

In my country (Australia) ALL gambling winnings and profits are 100% tax free.

You don't have to declare it because it is considered a hobby.

In the USA and other countries gambling winnings are treated the same as income and gambling companies are required by law to withhold federal income taxes.

If I had to pay taxes I would quit gambling. The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

Having to pay taxes is just a fact of life. The way around that is to just consider it paying for entertainment and make sure that you don’t win any money. It happens…

As gambling becomes more and more legalized in the states, I’m sure lobbyists will eventually target taxes as industry growth slows. We’re just a long way from that currently.

[Lida93]

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

In my own country gambling win are been taxed but not all wins as there is a set-up amount you have to win for you to be taxed from. Small money wins has nothing to do with government taxes. Am sure on this because I have always withdraw every of my wins in complete figure owing to the amount.

Only huge wins and the gambling companies are taxed and it makes sense to me that way instead of classifying all gamble win. Am sure this is not same with other countries where they tax almost any amount  of gambling win without putting into consideration how much money the gambler must have lost previously before arriving to that meager win.

[gunhell16]

Here in our country, as long as a casino is regulated, you play on their platform, and at the same time you win a large amount, it also has a tax. But there are also many
gambling establishments here in our country that operate illegally in our country.

And there are also many influencers who are known on social media who promote illegal gambling casinos online as well, which probably do not pay taxes.

[btc_angela]

In my country (Australia) ALL gambling winnings and profits are 100% tax free.

You don't have to declare it because it is considered a hobby.

In the USA and other countries gambling winnings are treated the same as income and gambling companies are required by law to withhold federal income taxes.

If I had to pay taxes I would quit gambling. The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Does your country tax gambling winnings and if so do you declare it yourself or does the gambling operator withhold the taxes on your behalf?

Good for you that in your country, gambling winnings is not taxable. But most countries do tax their gambling for a certain purpose. I mean the taxes that they got is going to used by the government for infrastructure and others like for building hospital and medicines.

Not to burst the bubble, but i don't think that you will quit gambling just because you are being tax. For sure you will still enjoy it and maybe getting some good wins that will continue with you gambling not just because you will have to pay taxes.