Sometimes it pays to be a big loser — as a gambler. Rulings in federal urt cases have bailed out gamblers who were allowed to claim losses on their tax returns.

Francis Gagliardi won $26 million in the California lottery but squandered most of it gambling. The IRS wanted its share, claiming he owed $1 million in taxes on his winnings, but Gagliardi nvinced a urt last year that he lost more than he won. He was permitted to submit ATM receipts as evidence of his losses from casinos where he didn’t have a player’s card to rerd his activity.

Player’s cards were also key in ruling for Linda Myers of St. Paul, Minn., in 2007. She suessfully challenged a $5,266 deficiency and a $1,055 penalty from the IRS.

The IRS insisted Myers, who runs a trucking mpany, did not gamble enough to claim her losses, but her player’s cards showed she only worked about 5 hours a day before spending about 12 hours daily at various casinos.

Dctions in diapers

H&R Block teamed with area hospitals to celebrate the final babies born at each facility in 2008, or as the tax preparation firm refers to them, the final tax dctions of the year.

Nataly Arreaga was born at 10:53 a.m. Dec. 31 at Tulane-Lakeside Hospital in 2008. At Ochsner Medical Center in Jefferson, the distinction went to Lyndell Frankin, born at 12:47 p.m. New Year’s Eve.

Each child born in 2008 qualifies parents for a $3,500 tax exemption. Qualifying parents also are eligible for a $1,000 per child tax credit and an earned inme tax credit that varies acrding to the size of a family.

Business mileage allowance drops

The IRS has dropped its optional automobile mileage allowance from 58.5 cents to 55 cents per mile for business travel this year.

The rate was adjusted upward in mid-2008 to acunt for an increase in gasoline prices. With fuel prices dropping, the IRS lowered its allowance.

Taxpayers have the option to calculate the actual st of using their vehicle for work, which calls for thorough documentation, versus taking the mileage allowance.

XBRL rules go into effect in June

It won’t radically affect New Orleans’ acunting industry, but new rules mandating the use of XBRL in public mpany reporting are expected to trickle down to impact all firms that deal with transparency issues.

Starting in June, the U.S. Securities and Exchange mission will require mpanies to file financial statements in extensible business reporting language, or XBRL. The language is basically a list of financial reporting terms that the international business mmunity has agreed upon to assist in providing aurate information to investors.

Starting in June, the SEC will require the largest public mpanies to file using XBRL with all public mpanies falling in line within three years.

Most acunting insiders feel the transparency measures will eventually work their way over to the private sector, leading most firms to adopt XBRL as the industry standard.