Grandma might be in trouble with the government and not even know it. Her favorite gaming hobby might turn into a horror when she starts to draw Social Security each month. That could happen as early as age 62 if she opts not to wait for her full benefits at 66. Some people don’t even realize Social Security can be taxable. Not everyone makes enough other money to have to pay tax on those monthly payments. But for those who do, the IRS can tax up to 85% of their benefits. Combine that with her taxable gambling wins, and she might just have to rethink how much fun she can have in the casinos once those benefits begin.
Gambling is a favorite pastime of the geriatric crowd. Visit any casino in the late morning or early afternoon hours, and you’ll see banks of blue haired ladies and distinguished looking grey haired men playing the slots. The casinos are happy to have these older gamblers visit and spend their Social Security checks playing the games. They offer all kinds of incentives like free bus rides, and free play, and reduced-price buffets, and bingo and other entertainment for the over 60 crowd to get them in the door. Casinos like the older gamblers. The older gamblers like the casinos. The games are easy to play, and they sometimes get to win a little money. There are nice people to interact with socially, and it’s all more fun than vegging out in front of the TV all day. Too bad the government expects these players to keep track of what they win and pay tax on it.
The tax law is not very kind to its older taxpayers. Sure people over 65 get a higher standard deduction, but that’s about the only break they get. One aspect of taxes for older filers that really hurts sometimes is the possibility that they may have to pay tax on up to 85% of their Social Security benefits. Ouch! That hurts.
There are worksheets in Publication 915, in the 1040 instructions, and in mailings from SSA to determine how much of what SS recipients draw is taxable. I have a book which will be coming out soon on Gambling and Taxes that will go into all of it in detail. But I want to hit the highlights now for those who may have parents and grandparents who filed extensions this year and need to get started on their returns. This will not cover everything, because people on Social Security could have many other things complicating their tax returns: IRA and annuity distributions, working as consultants rather than employees, having income over the thresholds that causes a phaseout of itemized deductions and reduced exemption amounts, repayment of part of their benefits because they are still working and haven’t reached full retirement age, etc. Because we’re focusing on gambling income, we’ll leave all that for another day. We don’t want to go into such detail that we can’t see the forest for the trees! Just taxes on Social Security and gambling today.
It requires completing an 18 line worksheet to see how much of your Social Security income is taxable. But there’s a quick calculation you can make to see if you need to do the worksheet. It’s easy. You take half of the amount in box 5 on your (and your spouse’s) SSA form, add it to all the other income from the front page of your 1040 (plus tax exempt interest if you had any), and compare the sum to the base amount for your filing status.
That base figure is $25,000 if single, head of household, or married filing separately and not living with your spouse at any time during the tax year. It is $32,000 if you are married filing jointly. And it is 0 if you are married filing separately and lived together at any time during the year. If half your Social Security and that other income exceeds these base figures, part of your Social Security will be taxable. If not, it will not be taxable. If the quick calculation is more than $44,000 for people married filing jointly or more than $34,000 for everybody else, the taxable portion may be up to 85% of your benefits. The worksheets in the instructions and Pub 915 will figure the exact amount for you.
Here’s an example of a hypothetical couple on Social Security to illustrate. We won’t work through the 18 line worksheet twice here, but I’ll give you the results. You can see the completed worksheets in the book when its available. Or you can print out your own worksheet now off the web to run these figures through. In this illustration the husband draws $21,000 Social Security and a $30,000 fully taxable pension. The wife draws $11,000 Social Security and a $5,000 taxable pension. Their only other income totals $1,000. Together they had $7,500 in gambling winnings and $8,000 in gambling losses. When you work through the Social Security worksheet and the tax calculation with these figures, you will be shocked by the results. Here's what you will find.
(a) Without any gambling winnings, the couple would pay tax on $11,000 of their $32,000 SS benefits. With an additional $7,500 of gambling winnings (whether or not they can itemize and deduct any losses), they will pay tax on $19,175 of their SS benefits! That means instead of paying tax on 35% of their benefits, they are going to be paying tax on 60% of what they drew.
(b) This taxable Social Security is going to raise their Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) from $47,100 to $62,675. Higher AGI can cause a lot of problems for people who could lose many tax credits, deductions, and benefits above certain AGI thresholds. Some state tax issues too. We’ll ignore that now, but keep in mind there could be other problems for some filers. At a minimum they’ll be figuring federal tax on $15,575 more income — the $7,500 gambling winnings and the $8,075 additional Social Security that is taxed.
(c) Taking the standard deduction instead of itemizing means the $8,000 loss is deducted nowhere on their return. But most likely this couple won’t be able to itemize. Probably their house is paid for, or they have downsized into an apartment, and they don’t have enough deductions to exceed their $14,800 standard deduction.
(d) Subtracting the $14,800 standard deduction and two personal exemptions totaling $7,900 from their Adjusted Gross Income leaves this couple with $24,400 of taxable income to look up in the tax table in one case and $39,975 in the other.
(e) The tax on $24,400 in 2014 was $2,756. On $39,975 is was $5,089. So our couple is paying $2,333 more in federal taxes because of the way our tax laws are written.
This is so unfair in so many ways.
It is no wonder that many gamblers ignore reporting their gambling wins and losses when they aren’t reminded of them by getting a W2G. It’s no wonder that their tax preparers don’t want to probe too deeply into their elderly clients’ casino activities when they file the tax returns. They know the law isn’t fair to the elderly. Nobody wants to pay a tax that they don’t think is fair. (Nobody wants to pay tax. Period. But especially not an unfair one.)
Someone really should lobby Congress to rewrite these laws. Allowing netting of wins and losses at the end of the year would solve the whole problem. But we can’t change things, I’m afraid. Reform will never happen because of the revenue the government would lose changing the law. So, I guess we’ll just have to do the best we can to keep our parents and grandparents in compliance without digging too deeply into their finances and hope they still have enough money left after the big tax hit to have a little casino fun every now and then.
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