What is the best way to avoid taxes?

[berya]

If you could find people who would give you 90 cash for 100 I think you should do it. I know I would do right now!

That being that there was some guy a few month ago (on RGP) who was advising the following (he said he was actually doing it). He requested a check from Party for 15,000 or so. He went to Antigua (I believe this is where he went). He opened a P.O box there. He went to the bank and opened an account. He said when you deposit that much they welcome you with open arms. They issued him a debit card. From that point on he cashes out his winnings to this bank and then uses his card to withdraw. All the mail from the bank goes to the P.O box in Antigua. He comes to Antigua once ever 1 year or so to clean out the mailbox.

Of course my accountant said that I would be a moron to do this. I let you be the judge. I'll be paying my share for sure (unless somebody wants to buy at 90 [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img])

[gabyyyyy]

* Send Gabby some money

I wonder how many votes it would have gotten.

[Alobar]

The best way to avoid taxes is to simply not pay them.

The real question you should be asking is "Whats the best way to avoid taxes and not get caught?"

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
Isnt it true that you can only deduct things if you file as a pro gambler?

[/ QUOTE ]

And what qualifies one as able to make this claim?

[Baulucky]

[ QUOTE ]
And what qualifies one as able to make this claim?

[/ QUOTE ]

The persistent use of a pokerstars tan hat.

That's another use of the tan hat, for which the black hat does not perform as well, because the tan hat is better, much better.

[cardcounter0]

An alternative to Schedule C is Form 1120s.

In order to file Form 1120s instead of Sch C, you need to:

1) Make yourself a corporation (cost:$100~$200).
Click here to do so: http://www.amerilawyer.com/index.htm

2) Get your Corp a tax ID instantly free.
Click here to do so: https://sa.www4.irs.gov/sa_vign/newFormSS4.do

3) Register your Corp as a S-Corp with IRS.
Click here for the Form: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f2553.pdf

4) Depending on what your home-state is (NY vs NV), you may or may not need to register with your home-state tax department.

When you're done with the above, you'll do business as a S-Corp.
No more Sch-C problem.
No more SE-tax on the bottom line.

However, you do need to "pay" yourself some reasonable wages. But that will be offset by the expenses you can now have your Corporation deduct (travel expenses, internet costs, books, etc.) You can give yourself a daily meal per-deim and write that off as a corporate expense.

Any excess over your wages and not deducted as corporate expense, The corporate declares as a dividend, so that is taxed at the lower dividend income rate.

[bwana devil]

cardcounter

So the casual gambler could do this as well, if he were motivated? if someone did that, he could deduct travel expenses for trips to vegas to play 3/6?

bwana

[RollaJ]

Hi cardcounter, is it worth it if I make about 10k a year at online poker? It seems like it would be for sure. The steps you outline seem rather simple, how long in your estimation does the process take?

[Baulucky]

A "creative" way to do this semi-properly, (I bet it will give tax lawyers a lot of work to establish its legality), is the following:

1-Get a non-poker-playing "friend (straw man?)" that lives in a "tax haven" (for all intents and purposes Canada and many other countries not normally considered tax-havens would suffice in this case), to open accounts at your favorite poker sites and neteller, etc.

2-Get your "friend" to fund these accounts from his "new" bank account, compensate him in cash, and get him to relinquish his passwords to email accounts, poker sites, neteller, bank card, etc. to you.

3-Play and accumulate using his name. (You'd be violating the terms of service of the poker sites, but not breaking any US laws).

In this way, so far, no laws have been broken, and you'd have accumulated your profits "tax-free".

The withdrawal part... well, that's an entirely different matter...

The Patriot Act... well, that's an entirely different matter...

[RollaJ]

thats certainly still tax evasion