I keep a contemporary gaming diary (and u should too if you get w2Gs) and carefully do my taxes each year, matching any w2gs I get with my daily diary, totaling my wins, and losses, etc.
Well a few things turned up this year.
1. Got a statement for MIsc 1099 for drawings from one casino, and noticed it was several thousand dollars less than my total. I called them and got a list to see what was going on. First, they only include winnings over $750. Even so, they missed two different $750 winnings (so the 1099-Misc is off by at least $1500).
2. Then as I put my w2s in order, I noticed one dated 4/18/2014 -- very odd, because that date hasn't even happened yet!! I thought maybe it was for 4/18/2013, but when I checked my gaming diary, I hadn't gotten any w2Gs that date, and also, I was gone from the casino by the time listed. Using the transaction number, I figured out that it was issued much later than April, and eventually I found it -- 12/18/2013! Really odd.
Also, I noticed my Harrahs Win/loss statement for Chester/Philadelphia, easy to see because I'd only played one day there, so easy to check. They had the right amount of W2Gs for the day, but.....Looking at my losses/wins, they have my husband and I winning about $6000 more than we really did. I think this may be because we were playing together with his card in, but a W2 was in my name because I was seated, so this money may have been counted twice, once for a coin out win for him and once as a W2 win for me. I don't know, but the difference between Harrahs win/loss statement and the actual win for the day was considerable.
Another thing, when we were audited a few years ago, the iRS sent me a list of all the w2Gs they had supposedly/apparently received, and it was missing a lot of them. Most of the missing ones seemed to be where I had won two in the same day with the same denomination -- for example $1250 plus $1250 plus $2000 -- they listed only $1250&2000. I don't know if this was an IRS error or a casino error. You would think everything would be computerized, but maybe not. The missing items were not just one or two, but (if I remember rightly) over a dozen. Odd. (by the way I included the correct amount in my IRS filings)
So this may be one reason the IRS doesn't just use win/loss statements. They just aren't accurate. Also they know that sometimes people play and forget to put cards in, blackjack and craps and other table games aren't accurately tracked, and sometimes couples play together or on each others cards.
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