Do I have to Report Winnings for Tax Purposes?

[henderson]

Hello everyone, I play on Full Tilt and I've started winning a
decent amount of money and I was just wondering if I have to report
winnings eventually if I start winning a lot.

[JKDS]

Where do you live?

[supa]

Excercising my 5th amendment rights.

[kiwiMark]

Hi, I work for the internal revenue of departments and I'll be happy to take 17% of your winnings into the pokerstars account kiwilandMark on behalf of my boss prime minister obama.

Cordially yours,
Shakeel Al-Mahoozi

Your case ID is 00110010001010101001101110101001010101, please do not reply to this email.

[nice_aiau]

Hi, I work for the internal revenue of departments and I'll be happy to take 17% of your winnings into the pokerstars account kiwilandMark on behalf of my boss prime minister obama.

Cordially yours,
Shakeel Al-Mahoozi

Your case ID is 00110010001010101001101110101001010101, please do not reply to this email.

Lol Mark, do you know anything about nz taxing from a serious perspective?

[JKDS]

Excercising my 5th amendment rights.

You aint sullivan

[kiwiMark]

Lol Mark, do you know anything about nz taxing from a serious perspective?

Daven informs me that he can't get a clear cut answer out of IRD, but that it seems we're like Aus and the UK, whereby poker winnings aren't taxable. So I pretty much plan on just winging it, while before I'm robusto anyway.

[kidsoldja]

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

[nice_aiau]

Daven informs me that he can't get a clear cut answer out of IRD, but that it seems we're like Aus and the UK, whereby poker winnings aren't taxable. So I pretty much plan on just winging it, while before I'm robusto anyway.

Sweet as

+1

[spoonitnow]

If you're from the United States, yes.

[Icanhastreebet]

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

wat

[NightGizmo]

I looked into it a while back, out of curiosity (for US citizens). I don't remember the specifics, but basically:

- If you win more than a certain dollar amount in a tax year, you have to claim the income on your return.
- You need to be able to document your wins/losses for each session (ie, "On July 9th, I won $200 at FTP. On July 10th, I lost $50 at FTP"). I forget how detailed this needs to be -- like if they expect times and such. But they do expect you to document where you played.
- Sessions are not defined for online games -- they are traditionally at a live table, so there is no standard for deciding whether to lump all of your tables together if you multi-table. But I think it's safe to consider a "session" online to include all of your tables during that time period.
- If you are not a gambling professional (there are specific criteria in the tax code for this), you must claim wins as income and your losses as deductions. This can have tax implications, making your alternative minimum taxes higher than normal.
- If you ARE a gambling professional, the rules are different -- I think you can combine the wins and losses into a schedule C (avoids the alt min tax issue facing non-pros).
- I have no idea how rakeback is factored into the equation.


** I'm not a tax professional. Talk to an accountant.

[Penneywize]

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.

[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?

[NightGizmo]

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.

[StarGrinder]

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.

[StarGrinder]

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/

[drmcboy]

You owe the money regardless of where it is, although you're of course less likely to get caught hiding it if it's still on the site. I would not worry about $1500 over two years.

You can never net wins and losses, but the loss deduction is different if you file as a pro.

Google gambling and taxes or search the site, this post has been done over and over.

[StarGrinder]

search the site, this post has been done over and over.

Spoon... that's your queue to compile the best info and digest it.

[spoonitnow]

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.

[daven]

Daven informs me that he can't get a clear cut answer out of IRD, but that it seems we're like Aus and the UK, whereby poker winnings aren't taxable. So I pretty much plan on just winging it, while before I'm robusto anyway.

there's a student here in dunnaz who is up about $1, 000, 000 on da internet pokahz - i guess we could ask him...
eetee2008 or something - or just google elliot poker dunedin

[kiwiMark]

Huh, even a couple of mutual friends on bookface

[nice_aiau]

lol 40 mutuals on bookface. Wtf?
I heard about this guy through some ladies I know but thought they were just talking shit as per usual.
but... looks like MTT multi table SNG pro(going for SNE)
offers staking/coaching in 180s etc.