Besides the Ethical Implications........

[PokerBob]

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....What makes players claim all of their poker winnings?

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I'm not a fan of prison, at least for me.

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all this is true, but i think, and this is a big think, because i'm no expert, that if you deposit less than 7500 at a time, it triggers nothing. at least that's what i heard about casinos, that if you cashout less than that you don't have to fill out the tax sheet

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An SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) is generated on any, you are gonna love this, suspicious deposits or withdrawals. Common reasons are regularly withdrawing just under the $10,000 limit which automatically triggers a report, acting "scary", appearing high or any other reason up to and including to CYI.

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I work for a large financial institution, and this is not meant as a tax advice, but just heads up. Although not widely advertised, some banking activities trigger SARs at the $5K level. More so today than ever because of money laundering as well at the Patriot Act. Also, don't get duped into thinking that because it's off shore, banks don't cooperate. They do.

I have another question which maybe doesn't belong on this thread, but what about the legality of on-line poker. I mentioned to someone that I started to play on line, and was quickly reminded that gambling is illegal in our state. Any thoughts about this?

[Reef]

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So the obvious answer is to withdraw all winnings via Neteller debit card? Am i mistaken in thinking neteller is also based outside the US, and probably wouldnt give records to the IRS?

jvs

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Since 911 Neteller has agreed to release any financial records requested by the proper US authority. It was to abide by a formal agreement between the US and Canada.

So they do not automatically submit the data to the IRS but it will not be witheld if requested.

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I hate this 911 bullsh!t. Patriot act my ass. Just another way for them to take away our liberties.

This is not specifically referring to party/neteller.. just in general.

[ChoicestHops]

The government has so many ways to trace this it's not funny. Someone mentioned the Patriot Act. Well, that article states that if they think you are a terrorist for any reason whatsoever, they can wiretap you and search your house without a warrant. No probable cause here: the simple suspicion that you are a terrorist. Obviously this isn't happening everyday, but to state they have no way to trace things is completely ignorant. Federal government can pretty much do whatever they want with the Patriot Act, and it's all legal.

The fact of the matter here is that you having an extra 15k or something problaly isn't something they would waste their time with, but do you want to risk it and go to felony prison for tax evasion?

[GMan42]

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So what is the "proper" way to claim it. Do you just look at the beginning of the year and say you have X and at the end of the year you have 5X so I'm paying taxes on 4X or what? Can you claim anything as a loss?

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The proper way to file your poker winnings is to declare every single winning session as gross income, and deduct all the losing sessions. From what I've heard, the problem with doing it this way is that your income before deductions can become hugely inflated...let's say you earned $20K playing poker last year, but this came from 80K worth of winnings minus 60K of losses. You can wind up getting bumped up several tax brackets due to the $80K "salary" and paying a much higher rate as a result.

Just out of curiosity, how many people here actually file this way, as opposed to just declaring your profit for the year as a lump sum? This will be my first year with significant profits so I'm a bit concerned myself.

[amulet]

there is a tremendous amount of incorrect information in the above posts.

the US law states you MUST pay taxes on all income earned worldwide. that means your poker income must be declared according to the law.

furthermore, the irs can look at your lifestyle and compute your income and what you owe, even if you do not pay taxes or if you underpay.

if you make your living playing poker how are you going to build any assets outside of your bankroll unless you declare income.

now to the practical answer, most poker players keep 2 sets of books and only declare part of what they earn.

if you play at empire or party, a great tool is epassport. this cashout option gives you a debit visa. therefore, if you choose not to declare a percentage of your winnings, you have a debit visa, with which you can travel, buy food, get cash, etc. and never bring the $ into your bank account or the US. this offshore visa is a terrific option.

but remember all money made anywhere is taxable under US law.

[mscags]

So the gvmt has no way of tracing epassport? How do you sign up for these?

[ChoicestHops]

What's the point of starting a thread if you dont read its responses?

I'd like to ask a question that may or may not make any sense.

Let's say I accumulate $x, I transfer the money from my poker account into paypal...I then buy a car with this money off of ebay. Is there any way for this to be traceable income? If not, couldnt I pay for everything this way?

[mscags]

That was my question with the epassporte. If it can't be traced, why wouldn't I just cash out all of my money that way?