How do non U.S. residents recover tax withholdings?

I live in Canada and have become addicted to Vegas as has my wife. We love heading down there

to blow off some steam and relax. Our first trip was in February 2010 for Super Bowl Weekend and

we have been back 4 times since then, including this years Super Bowl weekend.

My question is this: How do we recover the taxes withheld by the Casino? I know up here there

is a company called Refund Management Services that recovers all or a portion of the taxes for a fee.

I'm thinking that if they can do it, then surely individuals could do it themselves if they only knew how,

and avoid paying a commission to RMS.

Any input would be appreciated.

This is for future reference as we have not been that lucky yet.

I remember a couple from Canada who used to post here and told me they had some kind of a tax I.D. number. I don't know how or where they got it, but the result was that the casinos did NOT withhold taxes from their jackpots.

Of course, you know, the only time they withold anything is when you hit a slot of $1200 or more.

Sue is talking about Vangrizz. He was last on the boards 6/1. Doesn't post as much as
he used to. Maybe they are taking fewer trips South of the border these days?

Maybe he will see this thread............

In the meantime, maybe a few more Canadians will 'splain..........

Actually the $1200 number is when a W2G is generated. It takes a lot higher number to generate Federal withholding. I am guessing it is 5K but I am not sure. All Canadian citizens should realize that the USA needs all the revenue it can get so if you make a big hit and taxes are withhold just write it off as donation to the good old USA treasury. This will especially apply if our current President is reelected.

Nope, not Vangrizz. The person I'm talking about is named Jamesp, and his wife is Lynn.

Fingerstim, the casinos withhold federal taxes from Canadians on any hand-paid jackpot. On machines, that's $1,200 and up.

Here's the old thread where James explained how it works -- https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=131766&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

I am also from Canada and have filed many U.S. tax returns to get my money back.

1. The casino will take %30 withholding tax on any machine win that is $1200 or more.

2. To get your money back you file a non resident tax return, and apply for a tax number (ITIN - Individual taxpayer Identification Number). You used to be able to get this number ahead of time, but now you can only get it when you submit a tax return.

3. The tax form and the ITIN form are easy to fill out. The difficult part is providing the proper documentation for the ITIN form.

4. Once you get through your first return and obtain your ITIN number, subsequent returns are a piece of cake.

Thanks very much for this!!

And thanks everyone else for your input.

Excellent point.

If we lose our current President, who has a plan to pay for the services his government provides, and replace him with one from the opposing party, which spends without regard to cost and finances that spending through loans from foreigners, you may well come to find that you'll take home more of your winnings (though it may be in yuan).

Glad to hear our Canadian friends are as Vegas-mad as Americans are.

How about for both of you we leave politics in The Sink.

V/R

Marc