Obviously, Canadians are very special people, but are they getting particularly 'special' treatment from the IRS? I've been reading the "Canadians and taxes on winning" thread and I was wondering, does the casino withhold tax on hand pays over $1200 for other nationalities too?
My understanding is that the Casinos will withhold if you're from a country with no tax treaty that allows exemption. In some cases, they will withhold even if you have a treaty but you don't have an ITIN. As a Brit, I am in the happy position of having an ITIN (thanks, Aria!) and getting any and all jackpots paid gross. So, if you count being whacked with taxes on handpays as "Special" treatment, then Canadians are definitely not the only ones who get treated that way. Personally, I view my privileged tax exempt status as being the real special treatment and I'm delighted about it.
Oh yeah we're special all right We get to let them keep our 30% until we file a tax return proving our losses are bigger than our gains. And then we get to wait over a year to get that 30% back By the way, gambling and lottery wins are tax free in Canada. If you win $60 million on our lotto max, you get the whole $60 million but you have to pay taxes on any interest it earns.
To be clear - do you mean that if it's paid off as an annuity (e.g. $2 million per year for 30 years), any interest earned on the unpaid balance is taxable? For instance, the $60 million gets no tax - the first payment of $2 million gets no tax - but if the remaining $28 million earns 5% in a year, I must pay tax on the $1.4 million in interest that would have accrued?
Lotto max is not an annuity. You get all the money, tax free. Any gains you make investing or saving it will then be taxable. Most of the Canadian jackpots do not do annuities, but lotto max caps its top prize (now at 60 million), and when unclaimed thereafter keeps spawning off separate million dollar side pots (different winning numbers). 6/49 in theory can climb higher, but I think has only topped 60 million once ever.