Gambling winnings tax in Nebraska

Nebraska allows gambling losses only if you itemize on your federal return. Take the standard deduction and it taxes your gross winnings. Whether only 90 percent of your losses count from 2026 is not settled.

Checked against Nebraska’s own sources on 2026-09-25.

In short

You can itemize federally and still get no loss deduction in Nebraska. This happens if your federal itemized deductions, less state and local income taxes, come to less than the Nebraska standard deduction.8
Nebraska cut its top rate to 4.55 percent for 2026. In 2025 the top rate was 5.2 percent.4, 3

How Nebraska treats gambling losses

Nebraska allows the deduction only to filers who itemize on the federal return. Take the federal standard deduction and the offset disappears, so gross winnings are taxed even in a year you finished down.

The two examples below are the same numbers the calculator uses, worked at Nebraska rates.

Two examples, worked at 2026 Nebraska rates

A single filer with $60,000 of other income who takes the standard deduction on everything except gambling losses.

A losing year

You win $50,000 and lose $52,000, so you finish down $2,000.

Federal: $3,596
Nebraska: $548
Total: $4,144

You finished the year down and still owe tax.

Federally you itemize, so your losses offset your winnings, but the 2026 rule caps that deduction at 90 percent and leaves $3,200 taxable. Nebraska allows the loss deduction only to filers who itemize federally, which you do. Your Nebraska income, after Nebraska's standard deduction, or your itemized deductions where you itemize federally and they are larger, goes from $51,150 without the win to $63,200 with it. The extra $12,050 is taxed at 4.55 percent, which comes to $548.

A winning year

You win $50,000 and lose $10,000, so you finish up $40,000.

Federal: $10,350
Nebraska: $2,275
Total: $12,625

Federally you take the $16,100 standard deduction, which is worth more than itemizing, so your gambling losses do not reduce your federal tax at all. Nebraska allows the loss deduction only to filers who itemize federally, and you do not. Your Nebraska income, after Nebraska's standard deduction, or your itemized deductions where you itemize federally and they are larger, goes from $51,150 without the win to $101,150 with it. The extra $50,000 is taxed at 4.55 percent, which comes to $2,275.

Nebraska income tax rates, 2026

3, 4

Single filer thresholds. Married filing jointly and head of household use different bands. Married filing separately uses the single bands.

Taxable income	Rate
$0 to $4,130	2.46 percent
$4,130 to $24,760	3.51 percent
$24,760 to $39,900	4.55 percent
$39,900 and above	4.55 percent

The calculator also applies what this table leaves out: a cap on the tax after credits at the federal tax before credits, the federal overall limit on itemized deductions at the top federal bracket, taken before the table and a personal exemption credit off the tax, which does not change with income.

Withholding on winnings

Nebraska withholds 3.5 percent. The payout that triggers it depends on the wager, and the lowest trigger is $5,000. The rules in the state's sources:

the state lottery and other lotteries, sweepstakes and wagering pools: above $5,000, measured after the stake comes off (Nebraska states no figure of its own and defers to federal withholding).
pari-mutuel wagering, other wagers and sports wagering: above $5,000, and only where the payout is at least 300 times the stake, measured after the stake comes off.
slot machines, keno and bingo: nothing is withheld, at any amount.

These sources give no rule for other kinds of bet, so do not assume tax was withheld on one.

Withholding is a credit against the bill, not the bill itself. It does not settle what you owe.

The federal 90 percent loss limit in Nebraska

7, 9, 13

From tax year 2026 the federal deduction for gambling losses is cut to 90 percent of what you lost, and never more than what you won. Public Law 119-21 did it, at section 70114(a), by rewriting 26 U.S.C. 165(d).

Nebraska has not said whether the federal 90 percent limit applies. Its own law measures the state deduction by the federal figure, so the limit can arrive without Nebraska doing anything. Nebraska follows the federal code as it changes.

Our estimate assumes the limit applies, which gives the higher tax. The calculator also shows the tax if the limit does not apply. We would rather tell you the number could be lower than let you plan around one that turns out to be too low.

If you do not live in Nebraska

Lottery prizes are Nebraska source income on Schedule III. A nonresident computes total tax and then apportions it by the Nebraska income ratio rather than taxing Nebraska income directly.

The calculator works the bill for somebody who lives in Nebraska. It does not apportion income between states, so a nonresident return is not what the figure above describes.

More about Nebraska

Tax rates

Nebraska cut its top rate to 4.55 percent for 2026. In 2025 the top rate was 5.2 percent.4, 3

The 2026 rate of 4.55 percent is fixed by statute. Only the bracket thresholds are provisional.

The 2026 brackets come from Form 1040N-ES, and that form says not to use it to compute an amount for any tax return.4

Nebraska has not yet published the 2026 Form 1040N.

For a joint return the 2026 bands end at $8,250 and $49,530.4

The rate table shows two top bands at 4.55 percent. Nebraska’s own schedule prints them that way, per Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-2715.03(2)(c)(v).4

If you itemize

If your federal itemized deductions, less state and local income taxes, come to less than the Nebraska standard deduction, you can itemize federally and still get no loss deduction in Nebraska.8

Nebraska applies two tests. Your losses must be on your federal Schedule A. Then your Nebraska itemized total, which is the federal Schedule A total less state and local income taxes, must be more than the Nebraska standard deduction.8

The federal Schedule A total is line 17 on the 2025 form and line 18 on the 2026 draft.

For 2025 the Nebraska standard deduction was $8,600 single and $17,200 joint.8

Withholding

Nebraska has no separate dollar threshold for withholding on gambling winnings. It withholds on what is subject to federal withholding.11

About this estimate

The calculator uses the 2026 brackets from Form 1040N-ES because it is the only published 2026 schedule.

The calculator takes off the $176 personal exemption credit for you, for your spouse on a joint return, and for one dependent on a head of household return. It leaves out $176 for each other dependent.

Nebraska does not let your tax after credits go above your federal tax before credits, if your Nebraska additions are under $5,000. The calculator applies this on each return and assumes you have no Nebraska additions. It uses your federal tax before credits without the alternative minimum tax or a repayment of the premium tax credit, which the calculator does not ask about.

Sources

Every figure above traces to a primary source: a statute, an administrative code, a state agency page, or official form instructions.

1. Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-2716.01(3) and (4): the Nebraska standard deduction, and the larger of it or itemized deductions for a federal itemizer (checked 2026-09-25)
2. Form 1040N-ES (2026), standard deductions of $8,850, $12,950 and $17,700 (checked 2026-09-25)
3. 2025 Nebraska Tax Calculation Schedule for Individual Income Tax (checked 2026-09-11)
4. Form 1040N-ES (2026), the 2026 Nebraska Estimated Income Tax Rate Schedule on page 6 (checked 2026-09-19)
5. Form 1040N-ES (2026), $176 for each Nebraska personal exemption (checked 2026-10-11)
6. Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-2716.01(1)(b), the personal exemption credit and who it counts (checked 2026-10-11)
7. Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-2716.01, personal exemptions and the standard deduction (checked 2026-09-15)
8. Nebraska Individual Income Tax Booklet (2025) (checked 2026-09-11)
9. Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-2714, rolling conformity to the Internal Revenue Code (checked 2026-09-11)
10. Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-2715(1), the tax capped at the federal tax before credits below $5,000 of Nebraska additions (checked 2026-10-11)
11. Nebraska Circular EN (2026), withholding on gambling winnings (checked 2026-09-15)
12. Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-2716.01(4): a federal itemizer subtracts the greater of the standard deduction or "his or her federal itemized deductions as defined in section 63(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended", which from 2026 are after the federal overall limit on itemized deductions (checked 2026-10-01)

The federal rule, for the parts of this page that rest on it

13. Public Law 119-21 section 70114(a), which rewrote 26 U.S.C. 165(d) on wagering losses from tax year 2026 and sets out its text (checked 2026-10-18)

We could not confirm these from an official source: whether any city or county tax applies.