Is rake back income

[sdc]

If you have a deal w/ a particular site to get rate back or a shill, is it income/taxable?
My thinking is it is a discount if fees and should not be considered income.....
Like a rebate on a purchase...

[spydog]

Yes. Rakeback is income. End of story. Pay your taxes.

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
If you have a deal w/ a particular site to get rate back or a shill, is it income/taxable?
My thinking is it is a discount if fees and should not be considered income.....
Like a rebate on a purchase...

[/ QUOTE ]

Its income assuming you are a winning player for tax purposes...in any case it would be declared as income before your deductions for losses.

Think of it this way, you win a thirty dollar pot that you put 7 bucks in. They rake 3 dollars. You won twenty bucks. (30 minus the three taken out for rake is 27 minus the seven you put in.) Thats income (if that were the only hand you ever played, poker winnings aren't actually taxed on a hand by hand basis).

Now if they didn't rake the pot at all you would have dragged thirty dollars insead of 27 and would have made 23 dollars. Now you have 23 dollars of income instead of 20.

Rake back is just like getting less rake taken out. So if you got 1 dollar rake back on the spot in the above example, you would have made 21 dollars in income.

Rake back is just delayed smaller rake.


Arguing that its not income is like arguing that if you play in a game with no rake, you don't have to count the amount of winnings that would have been raked if there had been a rake as income.


--Zetack

[sdc]

Nice explanation, dont like the answer, but good explanation

Thanks