I really don’t have enough details about your tax returns to know why that now you’re retired, your tax rate is increased by your gambling figures. I am assuming you don’t file as a professional gambler now and didn’t when you were working, so we are talking about filing as a recreational gambler. In all of those cases, whether you are working or retired, you always were required to put your gross win figure on page one, on Line 21 as "Other Income" – and this amount would have been included in your AGI. The only way you could subtract your losses from your wins was to itemize and then you could deduct your losses up to the amount of your wins. (Only a professional gambler can net out the win-loss figures to show a smaller win on Line 21 and they do that subtraction on a Schedule C.)
Why are you paying more taxes? Perhaps you gamble a lot more now that you are retired and have a much larger gross win amount to put on Line 21. Perhaps you no longer itemize or don’t have as many deductions as you previously did. There are so many different factors that might explain the difference. Your best bet – pardon the pun – is to ask the CPA to show you both returns side-by-side so you can compare them line by line. And then she can explain the differences that you don’t understand.
NOTE: There is a brand new fully-updated third edition of Tax Help for Gamblers, co-authored by Jean Scott and EA Marissa Chien, coming out at the end of this month. It's being published in e-Book format only, for Kindle, Nook, and Apple devices. This might help you understand some of the tax issues that gamblers face. Many professional tax preparers, especially those who do not gamble themselves, find this book helpful, too. If you don't have an e-Reader, the second edition of Tax Help for Gamblers is still available in paperback and the principles hold true, as does most of the information therein.
