Who Pays Taxes on Poker Earnings? (POLL)

[jrz1972]

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I would like to inform all of you worry warts out there that 1/3 of all Americans either intentionally or accidently pay there taxes illegally. Also businesses are MUCH more likely to be audited than are citizens. The united States Also has nearly three hundred million people. Although internted gambling may start to piss off uncle sam and they may decide to audit the players who are reporting.{Atleast more frequently than those who aren't} It would be alot easier to catch those who are reporting than go through millions of citizens financial records to find the few thousand individuals who are actually cheating the government out of a measly 50 grand.Because the irs will know that they can slap a fine on you just because of the uncertanty of what is to be defined as a poker session.

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Just keep telling yourself that. Yes, it is definitely safer to deliberately fail to report than to report your winnings honestly. Makes sense to me.

[stoxtrader]

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I would like to inform all of you worry warts out there that 1/3 of all Americans either intentionally or accidently pay there taxes illegally. Also businesses are MUCH more likely to be audited than are citizens. The united States Also has nearly three hundred million people. Although internted gambling may start to piss off uncle sam and they may decide to audit the players who are reporting.{Atleast more frequently than those who aren't} It would be alot easier to catch those who are reporting than go through millions of citizens financial records to find the few thousand individuals who are actually cheating the government out of a measly 50 grand.Because the irs will know that they can slap a fine on you just because of the uncertanty of what is to be defined as a poker session.

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Just keep telling yourself that. Yes, it is definitely safer to deliberately fail to report than to report your winnings honestly. Makes sense to me.

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i honestly think it is safer, but higher risk. not that i know anything about it or condone doing it.

but it seems logical to me that not reporting at all would make it harder to catch than underreporting. Of course the repurcussions would/should be much more for not reporting at all.

[pshabi]

Hope you get herpes (if you haven't already). [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[bookie socks]

.....none of this will be an issue.

Americans for fair taxation

[Mempho]

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I would like to inform all of you worry warts out there that 1/3 of all Americans either intentionally or accidently pay there taxes illegally. Also businesses are MUCH more likely to be audited than are citizens. The united States Also has nearly three hundred million people. Although internted gambling may start to piss off uncle sam and they may decide to audit the players who are reporting.{Atleast more frequently than those who aren't} It would be alot easier to catch those who are reporting than go through millions of citizens financial records to find the few thousand individuals who are actually cheating the government out of a measly 50 grand.Because the irs will know that they can slap a fine on you just because of the uncertanty of what is to be defined as a poker session.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just keep telling yourself that. Yes, it is definitely safer to deliberately fail to report than to report your winnings honestly. Makes sense to me.

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i honestly think it is safer, but higher risk. not that i know anything about it or condone doing it.

but it seems logical to me that not reporting at all would make it harder to catch than underreporting. Of course the repurcussions would/should be much more for not reporting at all.

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You are dead on stoxtrader, however, we haven't defined the risk of what. The risk of getting audited probably increases if one reports. The risk of catastrophe (imprisonment, crippling fines and penalties), however, decreases if you report. If one is as successful at poker as many on this forum aspire to be, it is imperative that they report unless they want to risk losing what they've gained.

I think of it like this: You could build a $5M dream home on the coast of Florida. If you didn't have a mortgage for the home, you could choose not to carry hurricane insurance. Even in Florida, the risk of your exact area recieving a catastrophic direct hit are very low since the hurricane usually has a maximum 30 mile wide eyewall. The chance of getting by without a catostrophic hit is very good for the first year. The odds of getting away with it for five years (while still fairly high) are significantly lower. If your chance of a catastrophic hit in a year is 99:1, you would probably still be dumb not to take the insurance even if the insurance is -EV (and it is, of course). Some -EV propositions should be taken in order to reduce the risk of ruin from variance {Remember Doyle's coin flipping analogy}.

So, from an ethical perspective, most people believe in paying taxes (I do even though I view many parts of the IRC as unfair). Even if I had no ethics, however, I would still be paying taxes because a catostrophic hit would be terrible.

In closing, the odds of getting audited for the population overall is about 200:1 in a given year for the ordinary citizen. Extrapolate that out over 20 years and see what the odds are. They are no longer all that great.

I voted nope... like 84.5 percent did.

[k_squared]

you are very confused. The chart does not say 84% of people don't pay taxes.

34% (135 of the people voting) pay all taxes
12% (50 of the people voting) pay some of their taxes
29% (116 of the people voting) don't pay taxes
21% (84 of the people voting) haven't paid taxes yet but are going to
0% (2 of the people voting) got in trouble for not paying

more people pay taxes than don't. More people intend to at least report something by a margin of 67% to 29% who don't.

-Kevin

[Krazy Dan]

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.....none of this will be an issue.

Americans for fair taxation

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Although it accounts for gambling income better than the current system does, it's still an absolute [censored] system. If you need to understand why it's bad, realize that Krazy Dan Independent Contractors, Inc. needs a new car for... um... business purposes and as a business won't have to pay the tax. Same goes for a new computer and all of those groceries are being used by Krazy Dan Independent Contractors, Inc.

It's not even a bill yet, is it?

[bookie socks]

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.....none of this will be an issue.

Americans for fair taxation

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You should check out the web site
Americans for fair taxation

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Although it accounts for gambling income

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The Fairtax does not account for any income. It is not an income tax, it is a consumption tax.


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better than the current system does, it's still an absolute [censored] system.

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You haven't researched 1 word of the Fairtax and you're condeming it.


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If you need to understand why it's bad, realize that Krazy Dan Independent Contractors, Inc. needs a new car for... um... business purposes and as a business won't have to pay the tax. Same goes for a new computer and all of those groceries are being used by Krazy Dan Independent Contractors, Inc.

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No corporations pay tax. If you need to understand why.



Any taxes you think corporations pay are paid from the income of it's customers. And if the taxes increase the corporation increases it's pricing. (unless it's a commercial airline)

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It's not even a bill yet, is it?

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Yes it is H.R. 25 introduced Jan 5 2005

[PokerCrab]

Does anyone here report as a professional poker player? and if so - do you do your own tax work with a software? and if so, what kind of tax software do you use??