Question on paying taxes on poker winnings.

[Warik]

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Also, event though the income tax rates are progressive, people with higher incomes usually have more deductions, etc. available, so the actual percentage of income they actually pay in taxes isn't necesarily higher.

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The top 5% of income earners pay over 50% of the total income tax in this country while the bottom 50% pay less than 5%. Let's not use the "the rich have tax deductions" illogical nonsense.

If you are in the top 50% of income earners, you are in the group that pays 95% of the income taxes. So, all of you who earn more than $30,000/yr aren't paying your fair share - you're paying too much.

[cardcounter0]

Your right, I guess one could construct a system that was even more unfair than a flat tax.

[CORed]

I'm going to make practical and legal observations here, and let others debate the morality. In the U.S., you are legally required to pay taxes on your poker winnings. However, because the poker sites are in foreign countries, they do not report your cashouts to the IRS. Therefore, it is likely that you can get away with not paying taxes on your poker winnings. However, if you are audited, the IRS will most likely find that unreported income. If this happens, at a minimum, you will have to pay back taxes, plus interest and penalties. If the IRS wants to get nasty, or make an example of you, they could file criminal charges of tax evasion. In order to make this charge stick, I believe they have to prove that you willfuly evaded the taxes. Only you can decide whether not reporting your poker winnings is worth the risk.

[cardcounter0]

Please. Not that stupid argument.

If everybody had $1, and one guy had a million dollars, and you passed a ten cent tax on any one with more than $10. Then the millionaire would pay 1 dime.

AND HE WOULD ALSO PAY 100% OF THE TAXES. Then some one would say, HEY - we need to tax all these people with $1. The millionaire pays 100% of the taxes.

Crazy idiots would say leave the people with a single dollar alone, tax the millionaire more than a dime.

Your percentages are a reflection of the graduated tax. EVEN IF YOU WENT TO A FLAG PERCENTAGE TAX OF ALL INCOME --
the percentages wouldn't change that much. The top 5% income earners would be paying a much larger percentage of the total taxes.
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[CORed]

I'm not a tax expert, but as I understand it, you can only deduct gambling losses from gambling winnings, not from other income. Also, I believe that you cannot carry losses forward from one year to the next.

[CORed]

I don't have the figures available, and am too lazy to look them up now, but part of my argument was that income tax is only part of the big picture. Payroll taxes and state and local sales taxes are regressive. As far as the argument about whether a flat tax system or a progressive tax system is more fair, I'm undecided, but lean toward a progressive system, within reason. I don't think tax rates above 40-50%, even marginal rates at very high incomes, are acceptable under any circumstances. My biggest beefs about the income tax system as it's currently structured are that it's an invasion of privacy, and that it's just too damn complicated. Not only do they take your money, they make it ridiculoulsy difficult just to determine how much you owe. If you have a complex fincial situation, you can take the same information to 10 different accountants, and get 10 different answers. This is insane.

[CORed]

I recently worked with someone from South Africa, and it hasn't changed that much. There is still a lot of crime, and after moving back to South Africa, he had is house broken into several times.

[cardcounter0]

Yes, but they probably don't have people getting money from "income tax credits" either.

[Blarg]

When it comes to taxes, it's all about greed. Asking for justice just means asking for someone to give up their inherent animal greed.

Good luck.

By the way, that idiotic comment about a consumption tax being the way out -- that's the MOST regressive tax there is. Even worse than the social security tax, which taxes poor people in full but lets rich people stop paying on the vast majority of their income.

If you want coherent thought about tax reform, talking about it with other privileged people and their privileged children over the internet is not going to help you find it.

I'm reminded of all the "self-made men" I knew in college who had never worked a day in their life but were spending daddy's money like water. What a joke.

[thatpfunk]

In the united states if a flat percentage tax was instituted, a 1% rate would earn much more than we do now... 10% would be completely unnecessary. With the amount of wealth in the United States, everyone wins. Bill Gates might complain though when he has to give up, oh, a couple hundred million....