Profit, bankroll, taxes...

When does the money you win at the tables actually become profit that is taxed? If you move money from a site to neteller, is that profit? What about taking money from neteller to a bank account that is supposed to be for your poker bank roll, should it be taxed then? Note that my question regards what is legal, not what a person could 'get away with'.

[UATrewqaz]

It's probably not income until you withdraw it fromt he poker site to your personal bank accounts, just my thoughts.

[lautzutao]

Any amount of money that is greater than the money you deposit is money earned, which is taxable...that's the scoop I got at the Internet Gambling forum

The link is here (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=inet&Number=3400089&page=1 &view=collapsed&sb=5&o=1&fpart=all)

[MrWookie47]

You can search the Zoo FMI, but the strictest legal definition is that one session is the time from when you sit down at a table to the time you leave. You report your profits and deduct any losses based on that. A reasonable compromise that screws you over a little less is lumping all the tables you played of the same game in a continuous block of time together as one session. This is a somewhat loose interpretation of the law, but the laws weren't written for online poker. One thing is certain: if you want to do your taxes correctly, you cannot just report the net profit you've accrued at the end of the year.

[numeri]

Unfortunately, there are no clear guidelines yet. I tend to take the 'looser' approach that a session consists of when I sit at a computer to play. I keep an Excel file with each group of PT sessions together as one 'session'.

In terms of income, the definition I would go with is if I netted $50 from 4-tabling for 2 hours, that $50 is income and should be taxed. I can add up all of the winning 'sessions' and that's my income from poker for the year. The losing sessions can then be summed up and included as a deduction. Hopefully you have enough deductions so you can itemize them.

That's my plan at least. I just started about this time last year on the 0.02/0.04, so my 'income' last year was like $30. I didn't bother reporting that. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif This year, I still won't be earning a ton, but enough where I feel I should report it.