Do I have to Report Winnings for Tax Purposes?

In Canada you dont..i dont know about any other country

Originally Posted by kidsoldja

In Canada you dont..i dont know about any other country

wat

Originally Posted by kidsoldja

In Canada you dont..i dont know about any other country

This is true only if it is not your primary source of income.

You are also exempt if you happened to have won a large, one-time prize, say if you won the sunday million tourney for $250k or whatever, and your day-job pays you 30k. So long as it is not a consistent income.

If you play poker and have a part-time job, but earn more from playing poker, you're a pro and have to pay taxes on your winnings.

Anyhow, this is what my GF tells me; she's studying to become a C.A. so don't take any of this as written in stone.

This is probably a really dumb question, but you only get taxed on what you withdraw, not what you win, correct?

If this is true, let's say you've built up a $100k roll but have never made a withdraw. Conceivably one could move to a country where taxes are minimal or non-existent in terms of poker winnings then withdraw the full amount with less of a chunk to Uncle whoever. Meh?

Originally Posted by StarGrinder

This is probably a really dumb question, but you only get taxed on what you withdraw, not what you win, correct?

If this is true, let's say you've built up a $100k roll but have never made a withdraw. Conceivably one could move to a country where taxes are minimal or non-existent in terms of poker winnings then withdraw the full amount with less of a chunk to Uncle whoever. Meh?

I doubt this is true. Consider the stock market -- if you make $100K on stocks (actual cash -- not paper gains) but never withdraw the money from your brokerage account, will the IRS expect you to pay them for the gains? You betcha.

I didn't think so, but thought I'd stir the pot. However, it doesn't make any sense that you'd be taxed on winnings you haven't received yet (i.e. made a withdraw). If that were the case, I'd owe back taxes the past 2 years, since I've only deposited $50 total and donked my way to ~30x that, never making a withdraw. And according to PT3/HEM records, those are winnings and losses, regardless of withdrawals. You'd think I'd know this type of stuff with owning a business but that's what my account is for.

Not sure if we can link to P5s, but I found a link in my bookmarks relating to this discussion.

http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/tax-qa-585513/

Originally Posted by StarGrinder

This is probably a really dumb question, but you only get taxed on what you withdraw, not what you win, correct?

If this is true, let's say you've built up a $100k roll but have never made a withdraw. Conceivably one could move to a country where taxes are minimal or non-existent in terms of poker winnings then withdraw the full amount with less of a chunk to Uncle whoever. Meh?

No. You're taxed on income earned, not income moved around. If you have over $10k in a poker account you have to fill out a form for that too.