How Much Gambling Winnings Do I Have to Claim in Canada?

Canadians like to gamble, but few are ready for what will happen if they win. It’s true that sometimes gambling and taxes go hand in hand. When making a bet at the poker table, most people don’t think much about their taxes.

Even if you’ve never thought about paying taxes on gambling wins, the old saying “the best things in life are free, but sooner or later the government will find a way to tax them” is still true. This happens sometimes when people gamble. The popularity of the online casino industry increases in Canada as time goes by and as a result of this many people ask whether or not gambling winnings are taxable. Those players who play at an under 1 hour withdrawal casino in Canada should know that the taxes are dependent on the amount of money you win. Since there is no one rule about how taxes should be taken out of gambling earnings, each case is looked at on its own. 

To make things even clearer, how much money you’ve won has nothing to do with whether or not you’ll have to pay taxes in Canada. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is more interested in finding out if your gambling can provide for you. If casino gaming is your full-time job, claim an incentive – deposit £20 get bonus, and get great rewards at safe online casinos, you must file taxes, even if you do it from the comfort of your own home or while traveling the world. People think of professional gamblers, whether they play poker, blackjack, or any other game, as running their own business. 

So far, the Canada Revenue Agency has been hesitant to look into and audit people whose income comes from gambling. It’s because people think they run a business, and real money made from businesses is taxed. But it is possible for the same company to lose a lot of money over time, which would cut into profits and hurt the ability of subsidiary businesses to stay in business. In this article, we’ll cover several topics, including: 

  • How gambling taxation works in Canada
  • When do you have to claim gambling winnings
  • What is the Amount of Gambling Winnings Taxable in Canada

How Does Gambling Taxation Work in Canada?

How much you have to report on your tax return for casino gaming wins and losses depends mostly on how often you gamble. The problem is that it’s hard to tell if someone is gambling to make money, and we still don’t have clear rules about how to do that.

For people who gamble for a living, the tax rules may be a real pain in the neck. If your money comes straight from running online casinos, that is business income. Casino wins (or losses) will be treated as income or loss from a business, and the taxpayer will be assumed to want to make money.

If you treat gambling like a business, the CRA says that the main reason you do it must be to make money. People who play games of skill for a living have to pay taxes on their casino winnings in Canada, just like the rest of us.

To be more precise, many individuals who work for the government have the opinion that gamblers only care about the amount of money they can earn for themselves. The possibility of gaining financial gain from these activities is a significant motivating factor for a lot of individuals to engage in them. Obviously, you can’t draw parallels between every gambler and a businessperson.

If tax preparers look at previous years’ returns, they may be able to provide some assistance. If, on the other hand, you gamble just infrequently for entertainment purposes, you may retain all of the money you win without being required to pay taxes on it.

What About Different Types of Gambling?

So, what should be done about taxes on betting on the internet? To put it simply, the Income Tax Act doesn’t treat gambling on the internet any differently than gambling in traditional casinos. So, both have to pay the same taxes on their casino earnings. People who gamble for a living have to report their earnings as income, but people who gamble for fun don’t have to.

On the other hand, it’s hard to claim gambling losses as there are a lot of rules about how to act professionally when gambling. 

Since sports betting is now legal in Ontario, is it possible that it will also be taxed? Because the betting market is so unpredictable, it is very unlikely that taxes will be taken out of winnings from sports betting. On the other hand, those very few people who can reliably “beat the spread” (guess the right outcome of a sporting event) may be taxed as they have the same skill, motivation, and expectation of profit.

Keep all of your gaming receipts for seven years to avoid any unpleasant surprises when you file your taxes. If you keep track of how much you win from a single slot machine spin, it will be much easier to say that you just got lucky. In the same way, if you play poker as a business, you should keep records that can be used to prove how much you lost.

So do you have to claim casino winnings? If you want a simple answer, “it depends” is the answer. People who play at casinos for fun don’t have to worry about taxes, but people who gamble for a living do.