Online Poker Taxes

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Yeah, we here in the US may have much lower tax rates, but we have much more draconian tax-law enforcement. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

My understanding is that the IRS regularly denies Schedule C (self-employment) reporting of gambling income/deductions if you have *any* other significant income source.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I personally don't think it would work. I mean, think of how the IRS would react if you were audited and they saw a big deposit on 12/31 that offset all your withdrawals?

However, deposits & withdrawals *are* the only paper trail.

[PlayerA]

I understand the law here.

Here's another question: what does the IRS do to someone who has incorrect supporting information in their return although the net income amount is correct? Do you get thrown in jail if you report that you played two sessions of 1/2 NL and won 5,000 in one session and lost 3,000 in another while you in fact played .50/1.00 Limit over the year in several sessions while still netting 2,000?

[cardcounter0]

On what Line, on what Form, would you report such information?
[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[fnurt]

The point is that you need to be able to document your deductions. If you can't document them sufficiently, the deduction may be disallowed. No one gets thrown in jail for transposing a digit. And they could care less if you were playing 1/2 NL or Crazy Pineapple or whether the one-eyed jacks were wild.

[PlayerA]

See Publication 529 p. 11. Pub 529

I'm not sure that you are required to create line items for each session in any tax form. However, they recommend that a diary be maintained (I assume for the purpose of audit).

[PlayerA]

Ah, then supposing that I don't claim any losses (which actually doesn't make sense anyway since I'm a net winner), then I really don't have to worry over any of this business? I just claim the income (based on transfers into checking from neteller) and sleep well.

It would only be an issue if I completely cashed out. In that case, I don't want to be taxed on repaying myself the original deposit.

And, oh yeah, if it's actually this simple, then thanks for the clarification.

[cardcounter0]

Look at the examples provided. For poker, "Table Game" is a sufficent enough description. Date, Table#, etc. is the information wanted in the Diary.

And your losses are reported (as in putting down a number) on line 27.

[PlayerA]

Ok, I'm getting a head-ache. It's not so simple. What I stated in the previous post is an example of doing the netting (and it seems pretty clear that this is not allowed).