Question about Sweepstakes Winnings?

[tignhob]

My question is in regard to taxes. At what dollar amount are you taxed on? Is it anything over $500?? And does anyone know how to estimate taxes on winnings. The reason I am asking is I won the SlimFast $2000 JCrew Gift Certificate and I want to know how much I should be putting away for taxes. Any help would be great. Thanks

Lisa

[bradedit]

Generally anything over $600 will be taxed(although to be technical, you should claim all your wins,but I don't think that happens too often). Most places for a larger win will send a form 1099(as greetnwin did) . How much you are taxed will depend on the individual . With a cash or GC win the face value is taxed, but on a trip or something its difficult because the prices are usually inflated.

I try to stay away from trips that have a really big amount that it is worth unless I really want to go there, I don't want to pay taxes for a trip to see Michael Jackson when the trip is estimated to be $10,000.

I try to set aside 25% of the winnings, when I won the $1,000 from GNW, I put $250 of it in the bank for taxes. So far I have been pretty consistant

[tignhob]

Thanks Tami, that helps out alot.

Lisa