With the rise in the popularity of poker it was only a matter of time before the IRS started looking at making sure they get their fair share.

The IRS clarified its rules on reporting poker tournament winnings, requiring casinos and other sponsors of poker tournaments to report winnings of more than $5,000

Article can be found:

RGJ.com: IRS tweaks poker tax rules

Anyway for them to try to get more money from you. This doesn't surprise me at all. I know that my parents like to play Bingo and you have to claim those winning now also.

Yeah, My dad likes to remind me of the old saying "Theres two things you can guarantee in life, Death, and taxes"

Another classic Dad quote is: "If the government could figure out a way to tax sex, they would. They should call it the Peter Tax"

If you play a lot of poker or live tournaments, make sure to keep track of all your expenses, keep receipts, etc. you can generally right off expenses and losses up to your winnings, but your going to need to substantiate that in some way if you get audited. There are some accountants that specialize in poker if you happen to be fortunate enough to win a bigger tournament.

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

I will have to remember that one "the Peter tax". I had never heard that one before. You just never know what they will try to tax next.

I think that this IRS is just a local problem there, Here IRS has bigger problems than my $5000 poker win.I think that they cannot take money from online tournaments and from live tournaments (for Laws in my country) i know plenty of ways to trick the IRS here, i am pretty sure that there are many there.


For example here you can say that you reinvest your profit from poker in somthing that helps the comunity(wich here is not tax deductable), in reality it helps only you.You say that you invest 20 000 actually you invest 100 the rest you say you bought plenty of things (for wich you have bills) to help you invest that 20000).Ofcuourse if they will check they will have no method to prove that you did somthing wrong.And that is just a rude way to avoid profit tax.

My father says another thing:"Taxes are for people that don't know the law"

Karma... maybe you or someone else can clarify this for me.
If you wanted to withdraw 100k online and have it directly deposited into your bank account. Is this safe or will a transfer that big pull up a red flag to the government. If it would and someone would win say the Sunday million and want to withdraw it all how can they do that.

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Kickboyswoop

Let me just start by saying, "Pay your Taxes". I wasn't advocating skipping out on taxes or cheating the government, I was clarifying that there are legitimate expenses that can be deducted from your winnings. If you play professionally, you can treat your all of your winnings and all of your expenses, exactly like a business with profit and loss statements,etc.

Good question

yes it is safe, and yes the government may/could have access to the info and they may red flag your account, although it is unlikely because the transfer creates a paper trail.

This is kind of a tricky subject to talk about in a public forum that has members from across the world because different rules apply to different countries.

For US citizens you are expected to pay taxes on world wide income. So it doesn't matter if you are a ditch digger in Tibet, an oil tycoon in Saudi Arabia, or a poker player playing on the Internet, the government expects you to report that income.

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

Of course I pay taxes, but i Pay just that ones that i cannot avoid...for example my father companies always pay propriety taxes, but never, and i mean never pay profit tax, and nobody can prove that he does something wrong.

I know you were not advocating that , I was.And my opinion if that there are legal ways to not pay something why should you?

You're right there are loopholes that you can use. It is just a lot of times the average person doesn't know that or finds it very confusing. I just take mine to someone to get done and let them find the loopholes.

Death and Taxes - Both seem to have people trying to cheat them LOL

Although, posting what you do to avoid taxes illegally in a public forum isn't something I'd recommend.

Finding legal tax loopholes are the way to go of course. Saving every receipt to deduct every expense.

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~PokerDawg~
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