Poker Tax Questions - Deductions

pipster · #1 07-28-2005, 04:37 PM

This is not a do you report or don't you report post...

For those of you who do report your earnings. What type of deductions do you take? Do you take a home office deduction? EVen if you are only part-time player?

Do you deduct all your equipment? Amortize it over 3 years or take it all at once? (ie computer, screen, etc).

Do you deduct your trips to casinos? Airfare? Gas? Food while you are out of the house at Casinos?

Having just bought an Inspiron 9300 and a Dell 2001FP I am looking at what else I can/should document.

Neurotoxin · #2 07-28-2005, 05:04 PM

Well I've made quite a bit of money this year and my accountant has advised me to not file self employment tax, thus avoiding 12% (I think) on my earnings. If you DO file as a pro, then you need to beat that 12% with your deductions.

This is my limited understanding.

pipster · #3 07-28-2005, 05:10 PM

I have a regular full-time job.. and already itemize. But what did you file it as? Just unreported income? I didn't know there was an option to report the income, but not pay self-employment tax.

I certainly don't consider myself a Pro. As I only expect to make 10-15K this year (vs 80K at the "real" job) but I don't want to skip over anything either.

Chadt74 · #4 07-28-2005, 06:13 PM

Pipster unless you are a professional you can not take a home office deduction, that is one of the harder deductions to (legally) take in the IRS tax code and even then (you are a pro) it will be tough and you have to use 39 years so you are getting a small portion. You can not deduct your equipment at least not 100%, you can only deduct the portion you use so if you surf for porn 8 hrs a day and play poker 2 you can only deduct 20% (over 5 years not 3). now if you use the comptuer strictly for gamboling you might be able to deduct it all at once.

Unless you are a professional you can not deduct trips to casinos.

Sorry to spoil your dreams of huge tax deductions but unless you find a cpa/tax preparer who likes to gambol that is probabaly what they will tell you.

pipster · #5 07-29-2005, 08:26 AM

Luckily the laptop will be virtually 100% poker. As I have a nice high-end desktop for gaming, email, porn, etc.

But I understand what you are saying... thanks for the input.