yes another TAX question....

[AZK]

OK, this is my first year filing taxes. I'm meeting with an accountant who has talked to my parents and basically just wants me to give him a number. He wants a number of everything both on site and off site. At first this didn't make much sense to me, as I was planning to just give him a number of actual cash I've taken out or deposited to bank account. I didn't want to give him a number that included money on say party because I didn't think it was taxable until I withdrew it from site. Also I didn't want to pay taxes on money that I could potentially lose and then still have to pay taxes since I claimed X and now it's X - Y. I was talking to a fellow 2+2er who said the right way would have been to just use PT and group all wins and all loses and provide that info. with records, etc... The only records I keep are records of when the $ on cyberspace gets moved to the bank or to cash. So WTF should I do? He said it probably looks shady just reporting a # and no records of how/when I got there...thoughts? How should I handle this situation, in the future how should I avoid this headache? I only really use PT on party and not other sites, so I should probably start working up an excel spreadsheet for all, huh?

Thanks.

[BottlesOf]

I'm assuming youlive in the US.

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I didn't want to give him a number that included money on say party because I didn't think it was taxable until I withdrew it from site.

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This is false. You owe taxes on it, regardless of whether you withdraw it or not.

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he only records I keep are records of when the $ on cyberspace gets moved to the bank or to cash. So WTF should I do?

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Start keeping records from here on out. Do you not have PT? Get it. If you do have it, then you have all the records you need. As for the past: You are supposed to provide a good faith estimate of wins and losses, and indicate it's an estimate. Your "wins" are the sum of all winning sessions, and "losses" are the sum of all losing sessions. How "sessions" are defined is a little murky, but you should just try your best based on your results.

[AZK]

Yes, I live in the US. Yes, I have PT, but don't use it for certain NL games or for certain sites (prima). This adds to my lack of record keeping. I used to go by the 'every x buyins withdrawal method'. So if I just give the accountant a + number and nothing else, when it gets reported and filed is that suspicious?

[BottlesOf]

Yes. It depends on the number and a host of other things, but you can't just give your net winnings unless you are filing as a professional, which you probably don't want to do as it adds complications.

Why would you not import certain sites or certain limits? Start.

[AZK]

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Why would you not import certain sites or certain limits? Start.

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Some sites don't support it/don't make it worth the effort for the time it takes/or sometimes it's just pointless for a certain game.

What do I do in my curren situation, being that I have somewhere between 0 and 0 records and just a chunk of cash.

[FishHooks]

whats the common thought around here regarding what a "session" counts as? I've heard each table, but there is no way that would be feasable.

[BottlesOf]

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You are supposed to provide a good faith estimate of wins and losses, and indicate it's an estimate. Your "wins" are the sum of all winning sessions, and "losses" are the sum of all losing sessions. How "sessions" are defined is a little murky, but you should just try your best based on your results.

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[BottlesOf]

Many people I know just do daily totals. However, what I think a knowledgeable acct. would tell you is (http://www.rbstaxes.com/) if you are multitabling the same limit at the same time, those may be counted as the same session. However, if you start and stop or are playing two different limits, those are separate sessions.

However, those totals do come out ridiculous, and I myself use daily totals/separated by limits.

[LImitPlayer]

What you supply your accountant with is up to you, he does his work based on what you tell him.

If you don't want to be entirely truthful then don't be.

It's not his job to question you as to the legitmicy of your claims, if he does question you find a new accountant.

Accountant can not lie for you, they could get their license revoked so make sure you tell him only want you want him to know.

Many people here will tell you to pay your taxes, do what you want, not what other people think you should do.

I don't know if poker is your sole source of imcome but most self-employed people fudge their books somewhat, however there are many different levels of fudging.

It's up to you to decide

[somapopper]

Other then your own PT and written records, what records could you possibly provide? This is one thing about poker that kind of sucks/ worries me. I can't really prove anything as far as wins losses and total money goes. I just have to be honest and hope I don't get audited, because if I did, I have no idea how in the hell I could possibly demonstrate that my figures were accurate.