>
> First, keep a gaming diary of all your play, the IRS wants this if u are audited. Record time and place u are playing, times in and out, money in, money out. This should be done each day you gamble (don't try to produce one at the end of the year based on guesses or what have u. Some people keep it in a notebook, some on daily index cards).
>
> At end of year add up all your w2s and other wins for gambling income, all daily losses for losses when u itemize. You must itemize to take the losses.
>
> I tried doing session losses and the IRS wouldn't accept this. Maybe if I had gone to tax court I could have prevailed, but I just caved in due to worry, time and possible expense of hiring a tax lawyer. There have been some decisions since then in favor of session like methods, so this may work now, also some people have used session methods successfully, but after my experience I wouldn't recommend it. (I now file as a Schedule C business, but I do NOT have another job and I do gamble a LOT. People who are still working full time might have a problem filing as professional gamblers.)
>
> Get copies of win /loss statements from casinos as backup, but do not send them or give them to the IRS. Keep them only as backup in case you are Audited. Your main documentation in the event of an audit is a contemporary gaming diary.
>
> If you do not itemize you won't be able to deduct gambling losses, so always itemize when you have large amount of w2gs. You will lose a bit of money paying taxes if you normally do better off with the standard deduction, but u will pay less than if you have to pay taxes on a bunch of w2gs without being able to show the losses.
>
> Good luck.
Posted by: Misscraps <misscraps@aol.com>
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