Is it just me or do you think the Queen should have done this research
BEFORE she wrote a book on Gaming and the Tax Man?
"gnat man"
AKA Rasti$ P. Rulz
···
----- Original Message -----
From: "eecounter" <eecounter@hotmail.com>
To: <vpFREE@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 9:07 AM
Subject: [vpFREE] Re: Tax Withholding in Louisiana
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Jean Scott" <QueenofComps@f...> wrote:
> Has anyone had experience with getting back the 6% they withhold in
> Louisiana on all W2G jackpots if they are out-of-staters. I am
assuming you have to file a Louisiana non-resident tax return.
Wonder whether people who are residents of a no-state-tax place, like
NV, will get all or most of it back?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>The usual disclaimer: I'm not an accountant, but here's what I THINK
would happen, based on my understanding of how LA non-resident taxes
work:You would have to pay LA state income taxes on the portion of your
total income that was earned in Louisiana. Let's say you hit a $4000
Royal and have total income of $100,000. You would have to pay LA
taxes on the 4% of your income earned in LA, which of course would be
the $4000. If you itemize your gambling losses on schedule A, you
WON'T be able to offset your W2-G winnings with any losses, because
LA doesn't allow anyone (resident or not) to claim any so-
called "excess itemized deductions". However, I think you would
still be able to deduct the pro-rated share (4% in this example) of
the federal standard deduction. There may be one or two other lines
on the tax form that will reduce your LA tax liability somewhat, but
it's unlikely that you would be able to get it down to zero. If you
file Schedule C (which I believe you do), then you may be able to
declare your actual net winnings from LA, but I'm not too sure about
this. I would strongly suggest the help of a good CPA if you are
fortunate enough to hit a taxable jackpot in Louisiana.The withholding rate of 6% corresponds to the top state tax bracket
in Louisiana. If your winnings are fairly small, such as the $4000
in my example, you will be in a much lower LA state tax bracket,
perhaps something like a 2% bracket. So you would expect to get a
fairly good chunck of your withholdings back, but you won't get all
of it back.If you are from another state with a state income tax, in many (all?)
cases you would be able to reduce your local state tax liability by
whatever you paid to LA, so you would not really be out any
additional money. But if you live in Nevada or some other non-state
income tax place, you will be out of pocket whatever you pay to
LA.EE