What happens when a person under 21 files taxes for gambling?

[daveymck]

[ QUOTE ]
See here's the big question ... why on earth would you?

Since you cannot legally gamble, don't you have a pretty nice defence if the IRS comes calling? :P

[/ QUOTE ]

You didnt read what anyone said, they will do you for not paying taxes not for illegal gambling. They dont care if you have robbed, sold drugs, sold slaves etc etc they want your tax.

I have asked this before and what people said is the IRS wont share your activities with any other state department but will prosecute you for not paying taxes.

[driller]

I don't think anything happens because:

1. In most cases nothing illegal has occurred.
2. The IRS does not enforce gambling laws.

One thing is certain: If you have gambling income and don't report it, you ARE breaking the law.

[Ed Miller]

Death penalty I believe.

In Texas only.

[mmcd]

Just something that a lot of people here seem to miss:

The are two types of failure to pay taxes:

The interest/penalties type, and the criminal prosecution type.

I think a kid who didn't report that he won money from an online poker site would almost certainly fall into the former category. The audit rate overall is ~2%. Probably siginificantly lower than that for younger people that don't have too much income.

[driller]

Actually, we losened up a little since W moved to Washington.

[CORed]

[ QUOTE ]
And if you did, I would think the best thing to do would be not claim those winnings

[/ QUOTE ]

Very, very bad advice. The IRS is not going to report you to local authorities for underage gambline. Even if they did, the penalties for tax evasion are much more severe.

[prairieboy]

Not only will the IRS not report you to other authorities, they are prohibited by regulation from doing so by the "silver platter" rule. (i.e. They can't hand another agency your head on a silver platter.)

As for whether you should or shouldn't report your earnings, you'll have to decide that for yourself. Personally, I pay.

[bunky9590]

Can't you just put it down as miscellaneous income?

I know drug dealers who pay taxes on their income, I don't see what problem gambling would be, even underage. But, if you just put it down as miscellaneous income, you should be fine. If you have a job you can do it that way. If you don't you sure don't want to get hit with that self employment tax.

[shummie]

I'm really interested in this "Silver Platter" thing. If I was a hitman (ahem) and I reported my earnings on hits, the IRS wouldn't turn me in? What if I was a terrorist?

- Jason

[cardcounter0]

Review the case of Al Capone.

There is a constitutional clause about self-incrimination.

People could avoid paying taxes on the grounds that reporting income from illegal activity caused them to incriminate themselves.

To avoid that, the IRS cannot disclose such information to other agencies (although in the case of terrorism, the Patriot Act probably goes around this constitutional technicality).