TAXES On poker winnings

[applej25]

This is for david ross or anyone else who plays for a living, particularly on the internet.

Will you pay taxes??? How do you handle them? Do you even have to report?

Any help greatly appreciated.

[astroglide]

search the forum. this has been covered ad nauseum.

[Tosh]

Just search, mainly the internet forum. Some of us pay nothing though.

[applej25]

could you elaborate??? Why do some of you pay nothing?

[GuyOnTilt]

Tosh and David both live north of the border.

GoT

[Richie Rich]

(1) they live in Canada,
OR
(2) they already feel like they pay enough in taxes, and don't feel like paying any more,
OR
(3) both

Seriously, though, you ARE supposed to pay taxes on your winnings. For example, if you get money deposited into your bank from an outside source (like Party Poker, Poker Stars, etc.), the bank will report that income to the Feds to keep you honest. If your W-2 reports $30,000 in salary earnings, and you make $10,000 over the course of that year through deposits from the online poker sites, the IRS will come after you for that extra piece of the pie if you didn't declare it in your 1040.

What's even better, let's say you win $100 online, then lose that $100...you're STILL supposed to pay taxes on that $100, even though you've netted nothing. Kinda sucks, eh?... Unfortunately, you cannot use your losses to offset the gains unless those losses are bigger than your standard 1040 deduction (...if you're single, then I think that's somewhere around $4k).

So if you made $8K in poker winnings over the course of the year, but lost $3K in that same period (for a net gain of $5K), you're still expected to pay taxes on $8K. But if you made $10K in poker winnings over that time period, and lost $5K over that period (for a net gain of $5K), then you will pay taxes on $5K since you can use your losses to offset the gains. That $5K loss is bigger than your standard deduction. Make sense?

ps~ this has been a "hot topic" over the last month+...surprised you didn't come across it, back then. Unless, of course, you filed for an extension [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Tosh]

Actually I live across the Atlantic.

[astroglide]

and for bigger limit players, we get to deal with dodging amt! [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Slacker13]

216

[applej25]

So if the US gov already considers gambling on the internet illegal, what are they going to say when you report online gambling winnings???

AND

What if you dont get the money directly from the poker site but go through say a Firepay.com (based in canada) etc.???