Tax Shelter???

[krishanleong]

So I haven't heard anyone say anything about this yet. So I'm planning on reporting all the money I earned this year playing poker. Poker Money + rakeback + bonuses etc... I'm a good boy. But say for some reason I wanted to pay tax on 20K of my winnings next year instead of this year.

Can you say a certain amount of money you earn is still invested in your business (playing poker) and therefore not income? The idea is to deduct your working roll from the total amount you have earned for the year and then adding that amount to your tax liability the next year. It makes sense to me as business can't be forced to pay taxes on their inventory, just on the profits from items sold. So a poker player shouldn't have to pay taxes on his working bankroll. I haven't asked my CPA this yet but I certainly will. Thought it might be interesting to get the boards thoughts first.

If this works, I'll probably claim 1000 bets at my current limit as my working roll.

Krishan