Canadian Jackpots Climb Due to Tax Regulations

Onlinecasino.org News | 20.11.2009 | 14:54:00 | Views: 404 | Casino News

While the gambling industry in Canada may not be as large as that of its Southern neighbor, Canadians are taking home much larger jackpots – simply due to the exorbitant amount of taxes that are charged on American gambling winnings.

While the gambling industry in Canada may not be as large as that of its Southern neighbor, Canadians are taking home much larger jackpots – simply due to the exorbitant amount of taxes that are charged on American gambling winnings.

In the United States, the government feels that its allowance of gambling gives it the right to cash in on the massive amounts of money that are transferred between players and operators in the gambling industry. Because of this, the money that players win while playing at online casinos and their land-based counterparts is taxed, with a large portion going to the federal government.

In Canada, as well as around the world, the government collects a great deal of money from online gambling before the winnings are ever taxed. So, essentially, Americans pay the government for their winnings twice, a fact which seems unfair even to governmental officials up North.

Canada’s Department of Finance Regulations states that “there is already a considerable element of implicit taxation of lottery and gambling proceeds”.

Officials believe that the only fair way to tax gambling winnings is to allow deductions on the amount of money that players lose. This system has already been enacted in some American tax laws, but the Canadian government is not yet ready to create such confusion in the world on online gambling. In fact, the federal government has warned individual provinces to refrain from placing taxes on winnings, and hopes to stay away from any similar schemes.