New Tax Law and Horseracing
 

The new U.S. tax law contains provisions that appear to significantly benefit owners and trainers. Blood Horse Daily has an excellent summary that you can find on pages 3-7 here:
http://cdn.bloodhorse.com/daily-app/...y-20180102.pdf

For recreational horseplayers like me, and probably you, nothing seems to have changed. You still can only offset betting losses against winnings so no tax losses for the casual gambler. Professional players, however, seem to have taken one on the chin. I haven't read the actual text of the new law and I'm not giving legal advice (I'm retired and the law license is inactive) but here's the pertinent excerpt from the summary:

"Under the previous law, individuals who itemized their deductions could deduct gambling losses to the extend of gambling winnings. Professional gamblers also were permitted to claim deductions for business expenses incurred in carrying out wagering instructions beyond the amount of winnings recorded. Under the new legislation, all gambling deductions are limited to the extend of gambling winnings."

I don't think this will be popular in Las Vegas and not just with horseplaying professionals.

Re-reading my previous post, I realize I could have done a better job of explaining myself. This is from a Forbes magazine article and it should do the job.

Rebate earnings ?
 

Has anyone read anything about rebate earnings ? They have always (according to an IRS ruling) not been subject to tax. Has that changed ?

I'm a customer with the rebater recommended by RDSS and have heard nothing, so I assume there have been no changes as it would be a very big deal for them (e.g. mailing out thousands of Form 1099s and reporting the information to the IRS). Meanwhile, here's a website with some interesting posts, including one that quotes an old Revenue Ruling.

http://www.horseplop.com/index.php?topic=55627.0