Poll: Do you claim taxes on your winnings?

[MrBrightside]

Since the questions of taxing players is coming up, I'm curious. I don't think this will be as representative (I think if you polled BBV, many more don't claim). Anyway, here we go.

[Harkey]

Yes. I claim income in compliance with state and federal laws, and I claim everything I make.

Like Benny Binion told Doyle Brunson long ago (in context): Claim all of your income, because you don't want the government on your case and money sitting in a box isn't doing any good. Brunson took it to heart. One year, he actually lost money, but he claimed some income anyway so the IRS wouldn't get on his case.

[okayplayer]

Wow, kinda surprised that "No" is ahead. I'm assuming most of these are small (<$10k) winners?

[Indiana]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, kinda surprised that "No" is ahead. I'm assuming most of these are small (<$10k) winners?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know any winners making <15K that pay taxes. I seriously doubt the IRS is gonna run u down for a puny 15K anyway. Now, if you are making 25K+ its ur ass if you dont pay.

Indy

[MrBrightside]

[ QUOTE ]

I don't know any winners making <15K that pay taxes. I seriously doubt the IRS is gonna run u down for a puny 15K anyway. Now, if you are making 25K+ its ur ass if you dont pay.

Indy

[/ QUOTE ]

I do (make less than 15k and claim). I do because :

a: I don't want to have to explain the deposits in my account if I'm audited.

but mainly b: I believe it is morally wrong to hide income from taxation. Believe me, I realize I'm in the minority. And I'm not surprised that No is ahead. Most people think I'm crazy to pay. Of course, most people I know, when I bring up taxes, talk about how to cheat like it's not big deal.

[Unabridged]

i think its morally wrong to pay federal taxes since ~50% goes to weapons.
you can make >25k and still not pay taxes, you just have to be willing to move your money around slowly and watch how much you have sitting in your bank accounts at one time

[RemyXO]

[ QUOTE ]
i think its morally wrong to pay federal taxes since ~50% goes to weapons.

[/ QUOTE ]

Second that! I pay taxes out of my a$$ on my legal income, that's enough to fund their war in Iraq and pay exorbitant salaries to idiotic members of the Congress.

I will screw government any way I can. No poker taxes from me - unless I start making over 50K a year.

[Osprey]

What the hell's the point in living in fear. Like one of the responses above, I pay so I don't have to explain what's going on if I get audited for other reasons.

[Unabridged]

[ QUOTE ]
What the hell's the point in living in fear. Like one of the responses above, I pay so I don't have to explain what's going on if I get audited for other reasons.

[/ QUOTE ]

fear of fines is not a motivator for me, i couldn't live with myself if i willingly contribute to killing someone. anyways, they have absolutly no reason to audit me

[MrBrightside]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What the hell's the point in living in fear. Like one of the responses above, I pay so I don't have to explain what's going on if I get audited for other reasons.

[/ QUOTE ]

fear of fines is not a motivator for me, i couldn't live with myself if i willingly contribute to killing someone. anyways, they have absolutly no reason to audit me

[/ QUOTE ]

well, honestly, I've struggled with this as well, but it just sounds like such a justification for doing what I know is wrong. Maybe it's because my wife is a social worker, and it's those social programs being cut (not military) and so many people are deeply, fundamentally screwed by the system from the moment they are born. I get really on my high horse when people go off on "the lazy slobs on welfare" as a justification for not paying taxes, so I'm very pleased at the 2 first responses being "I don't pay taxes because half goes to the miliary" /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[OldNantucker]

I'm going to pay and wonder:
1. anyone know the legality of online poker according to NY state law?
2. when declaring online poker as other income do you have to specify this as "gambling winnings" or specify that it was for poker?

[Botchman]

[ QUOTE ]
so many people are deeply, fundamentally screwed by the system from the moment they are born.

[/ QUOTE ]
This justifies over paying taxs to me, I declare money I didn't even make just beacause of this /images/graemlins/smile.gif I want to let them screw me as much as they can

[Dazarath]

Paying taxes sucks, but going to jail sucks more. I'm not going to risk my own ass for a few bucks. Yes, I agree that a lot of our tax dollars are wasted, and I'd be a lot happier to pay them if they weren't. But are you going to try to avoid paying taxes if you get a regular job too?

[frommagio]

I paid the taxes as hobby income. So I picked the "netting wins/loss" choice. I read all the rules, and my conclusion is that the hobby category fit my activity perfectly.

[kslghost]

Netting wins and losses = illegal and subject to audit. I don't really care, but there are better ways to fudge your numbers than doing that.

[giddyup]

I keep hearing everyone say "If you don't pay your taxes and you get audited you're going to jail." Does anyone know to what extent this is true? I mean, is there a dollar amount that if you don't pay you'll be sent to prison for sure - or does every case vary quite a bit? It would be interesting to see what would happen to each person who doesn't pay on say 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k, and so forth. Anyone actually know?

[Impact]

Who here has been audited by the IRS?....Get it?

[Indiana]

I have. If its small $ like <15K you won't be in real deep [censored] if they catch u. They wil just make u pay what u owe and a few bucks in interest. You'll not likely get audited anyway. What I was doing was very obvious and involved mucho $ that's why I got looked up.

Indy

[Impact]

[ QUOTE ]
I have. If its small $ like <15K you won't be in real deep [censored] if they catch u. They wil just make u pay what u owe and a few bucks in interest. You'll not likely get audited anyway. What I was doing was very obvious and involved mucho $ that's why I got looked up.

Indy

[/ QUOTE ]

can you elaborate on what you did?

[Indiana]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I have. If its small $ like <15K you won't be in real deep [censored] if they catch u. They wil just make u pay what u owe and a few bucks in interest. You'll not likely get audited anyway. What I was doing was very obvious and involved mucho $ that's why I got looked up.

Indy

[/ QUOTE ]

can you elaborate on what you did?

[/ QUOTE ]

I was young and dumb, bought NT at .45/share and sold it for $8. I thought they'd never know but its auto-send to the IRS for e-trade stuff.

Indy

[Vern]

[ QUOTE ]
Who here has been audited by the IRS?....Get it?

[/ QUOTE ]
I haven't been audited but then I claim my poker profit using the day+limit=session method. I actually consciously don't switch limits during a day and plan one continuous play period so I can maximize the number of hands in a "session" and therefor minimize the "loss" deduction since that does not work fairly for people that report wins & losses. My CPA says as long as the play period is one limit and continuous, even if multitabling and table hopping, it gets booked as one session for tax purposes, but if I change limits or game it makes a new session. Maximizing the number of hands per session comes very close to just reporting wins-losses as income, but I do have some lossing sessions this way, just not as many and not as great in magnitude.

[MrBrightside]

[ QUOTE ]
I have. If its small $ like <15K you won't be in real deep [censored] if they catch u. They wil just make u pay what u owe and a few bucks in interest. You'll not likely get audited anyway. What I was doing was very obvious and involved mucho $ that's why I got looked up.

Indy

[/ QUOTE ]

Right. No one is suggesting you're going to go to jail for a few thousand dollars of unclaimed income. However, I had a friend who was audited for an approx. $1000 error from two years previously. He was blatantly in the wrong, got a judgement against him after stupidly fighting it for a year. So the IRS were pricks, frankly, because he'd been pricks to them. The fines and interested amounted to about $1500 on top of the $1000, so I wouldn't call this "a few dollars" of fines. However, I think if he would have cooperated, the fines would have been less, not to mention the interest.

[Klompy]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, kinda surprised that "No" is ahead. I'm assuming most of these are small (<$10k) winners?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you have to remember that not everyone on this board is a winner, I'm guessing that losing players aren't paying taxes on their winnings.

[TryTight]

[ QUOTE ]


I don't know any winners making <15K that pay taxes. I seriously doubt the IRS is gonna run u down for a puny 15K anyway. Now, if you are making 25K+ its ur ass if you dont pay.

Indy

[/ QUOTE ]

I won a big amount early in the year before I kept track of my sessions. I'm a little better at it now, but definately don't have 100% accuracy. Or 80% for that matter. Any suggestions? I'm in the +25K range.

[frommagio]

[ QUOTE ]
Netting wins and losses = illegal and subject to audit. I don't really care, but there are better ways to fudge your numbers than doing that.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not that cut and dried - a lot depends on your situation. Read the rules for the various categories. For me, netting as hobby income was the most apropos choice available. No other category fit as well.

[rubbrband]

I just use my bank ledger as a record. A deposit = a loss and a cashout a win. I declare gambling winnings hope this keeps working.

[nws103]

[ QUOTE ]


but mainly b: I believe it is morally wrong to hide income from taxation. Believe me, I realize I'm in the minority. And I'm not surprised that No is ahead. Most people think I'm crazy to pay. Of course, most people I know, when I bring up taxes, talk about how to cheat like it's not big deal.

[/ QUOTE ]

my two cents:
Its *only* legally wrong to not pay taxes.
Morally, i'm pretty sure its the opposite. If there is a god, a whole lot of people are gonna be answering a bunch of questions at the pearly gates on why they funded the US war machine with their income.
So i guess you can choose who to be in trouble with, the irs, or your conscience.

Myself, being too lazy to be religious, I pay everything i owe mainly because of what you said about audits. They will find you, and it can be years from the time it happens. I just got a notice in the mail that i had a 40 dollar error in my return from 3 years ago. Scared the crap out of me when i saw "audit division" on the envelope, and boy was i relieved when i saw that i merely owed 40 plus interest.
The moral of the story is that they'll catch you eventually.

And people who say the amounts matter are crazy. If you're hiding 5,000 in income from the gov't or 100,000, it still works out to the theft of thousands of dollars, according to the IRS.
And i think the deciding factor on prison is intent: hide money on purpose, go to jail. Hide money accidentally (miscalculations etc), pay interest and maybe a fine.

[Indiana]

[ QUOTE ]
I just use my bank ledger as a record. A deposit = a loss and a cashout a win. I declare gambling winnings hope this keeps working.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is also what I do.

Indy

[Slim Pickens]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know any winners making <15K that pay taxes. I seriously doubt the IRS is gonna run u down for a puny 15K anyway. Now, if you are making 25K+ its ur ass if you dont pay.

Indy

[/ QUOTE ]

I paid on 12k last year. It's small beans for sure, but I don't need the IRS getting fresh with me in ten years when I'm making 150-200k/yr at my real job. They "penalize" you however much they think they can make you pay.

[Sand]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know any winners making <15K that pay taxes. I seriously doubt the IRS is gonna run u down for a puny 15K anyway. Now, if you are making 25K+ its ur ass if you dont pay.

Indy

[/ QUOTE ]

I paid on 12k last year. It's small beans for sure, but I don't need the IRS getting fresh with me in ten years when I'm making 150-200k/yr at my real job. They "penalize" you however much they think they can make you pay.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am also surprised at the number of "no" votes. I also made ~15k last year and paid on every dime.

Rule #1 of adulthood - don't #### with the IRS.

I can move money around, in and out with impunity because I can back it up with the check I wrote. I don't have to worry about the IRS screwing up my real life and real job.

People who aren't paying just don't realize how downright nasty the IRS can get. They get mildly interested in you at 5k and very interested at 10k unreported income. Those numbers come from an IRS field agent.

[schwah]

i net my wins and losses because my state (wi) doesn't allow you to deduct losses. if i didn't i would have paid over half my income last year in state tax, not to mention the ~30% that went to the feds.

i make a lot of money and probably run a high risk of audit but i don't really have another option unless i move to another state.

[mttsemipro]

Am I the only one who claims most of the income but not all to keep the amount down? Im just a student otherwise, so the taxes on the first 15k are not bad at all. I would also think a lot of people would just claim online winnings and not casino or vice versa.

Is this somehow more dangerous because you are drawing attention to your poker income but not being honest?

[Mroberts3]

I'm dissapointed at the number of people saying they don't claim because of the way the gov spends their money. (in this case the military.) First of all you can't selectivly choose what you should pay. Don't want more war and deficit? Don't vote for morons, and dont let other people do the same. Besides, the money goes to more than the military. While I wish we spent more on other programs and services, that doesnt change the fact the government serves every one of us every day in so many ways I cant even count. By not paying your simply dumping the problem onto other people and I feel the military argument is just a rationalization of your actions. (well they are doing bad things, so I can too)

[cbloom]

Your taxes are your bill for living in this country. If you don't like it, get the f*ck out. If you don't like how they're spent, use your vote, which I'm sure most of you don't do. That's what makes this country great, you can vote & change things.

[PocketQueens90]

I started playing online poker this year (around june) and i have made about 14k so far. Im a student, im 18, i've never had a real job, and im not even from here (U.S.). Thus i have no idea how to report winnings/losses fromonline poker. I have no idea how it works. Can anyone help me out?
Thanks

[NapoleonDolemite]

[ QUOTE ]
That's what makes this country great, you can vote & change things.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL.

[QuentinCompson]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
That's what makes this country great, you can vote & change things.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL.

[/ QUOTE ]

[LearnedfromTV]

Yes and I'm doing it right. Last year I just did net because my records sucked.

I have an accountant.

[roxtar]

What winnings?

[neverforgetlol]

[ QUOTE ]
Your taxes are your bill for living in this country. If you don't like it, get the f*ck out. If you don't like how they're spent, use your vote, which I'm sure most of you don't do. That's what makes this country great, you can vote & change things.

[/ QUOTE ]

ah, youth.

[Joe Camel]

[ QUOTE ]
Your taxes are your bill for living in this country. If you don't like it, get the f*ck out. If you don't like how they're spent, use your vote, which I'm sure most of you don't do. That's what makes this country great, you can vote & change things.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's funny, before this legislation passed, there were a lot more people with this attitude. It's good to see someone sticking to their principles even when the government is trying to [censored] them.

[kevstreet]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
That's what makes this country great, you can vote & change things.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]


Will it work to keep detailed records of losing sessions at a B&M (casino) or Vegas trips to offset some of our online winnings? /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Also, for those that paid on $15K in winnings, approximately how much does that amount to?

[jrz1972]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm dissapointed at the number of people saying they don't claim because of the way the gov spends their money. (in this case the military.) By not paying your simply dumping the problem onto other people and I feel the military argument is just a rationalization of your actions.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Python49]

[ QUOTE ]
That's what makes this country great

[/ QUOTE ]
stfu

[ QUOTE ]
I just use my bank ledger as a record. A deposit = a loss and a cashout a win. I declare gambling winnings hope this keeps working.

[/ QUOTE ]
The tax law specifically states this is illegal.

[mttsemipro]

15k in winnings should only come to $1,873 in taxes. Not that bad at all. http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm

[otnemem]

[ QUOTE ]
15k in winnings should only come to $1,873 in taxes. Not that bad at all. http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm

[/ QUOTE ]
I was under the impression that if you can't file as a professional gambler, gambling tax is a flat 25% of anything over $10,000.

I just claimed net winnings the last 2 years (first year was like 1k, about 6.5 the next year). I didn't realize until late the 2nd year I was supposed to track wins and losses or at what granularity. I couldn't really put wins/losses on the 6.5k year because I simply didn't know and had no way to get the info (multiple sites, bonuses, etc, so simply hand history request wouldn't cut it).

This year I've tracked my wins/losses on a day by day basis and I'll be filing correctly.

[MrBrightside]

[ QUOTE ]
i net my wins and losses because my state (wi) doesn't allow you to deduct losses. if i didn't i would have paid over half my income last year in state tax, not to mention the ~30% that went to the feds.

i make a lot of money and probably run a high risk of audit but i don't really have another option unless i move to another state.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm actually in the opposite boat, claiming my gambling wins/losses actually makes my state taxes lower! Because otherwise, I would not have enough to itemize (I live in a modest home in Oklahoma, my mortgage interest isn't enough. Anyway, not itemizing in OK is a killer because on the state, you get either your federal itemized amount OR the state standard which is like 1K per person in the household (Or $4000 for me), which is like a diffference of $8000 in taxable income.

Why OK does this is beyond me. There have actually been years where I itemized for LESS than the standard, because it saved me money. The net result was paying more in fed taxes, but less in state, so my state lost revenue. Anway, since I've had a boatload of losses I get to itemize, that hasn't been a problem /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Quanah Parker]

I'm surprised no one's created a PokerStoveTaxCheat program.

Enter in the state you live in, your wins, losses, etc.
5k
SD

equity (%) fine (%) jail time (%)
5k in winnings, don't claim: 71.0956 % 68.44% 02.66%{go for it}
5k in winnings, claim: 28.9044 % 26.25% 02.66% { busto }

savings, don't claim, $1250 88%=1100
loss, claim, ($1250) 12% + penalty 50% + interest y=(775)
EV+

[5thStreetHog]

[ QUOTE ]
Your taxes are your bill for living in this country. If you don't like it, get the f*ck out. If you don't like how they're spent, use your vote, which I'm sure most of you don't do. That's what makes this country great, you can vote & change things.

[/ QUOTE ]The bill for living in this country??? lol Never knew that you paid rent on life,i thought it was my right,but ooooooookkkkkkkkk...BTW,pay your taxes,but that statement was silly lol

[Indiana]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm surprised no one's created a PokerStoveTaxCheat program.

Enter in the state you live in, your wins, losses, etc.
5k
SD

equity (%) fine (%) jail time (%)
5k in winnings, don't claim: 71.0956 % 68.44% 02.66%{go for it}
5k in winnings, claim: 28.9044 % 26.25% 02.66% { busto }

savings, don't claim, $1250 88%=1100
loss, claim, ($1250) 12% + penalty 50% + interest y=(775)
EV+

[/ QUOTE ]

LMFAO...

[TryTight]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm surprised no one's created a PokerStoveTaxCheat program.

Enter in the state you live in, your wins, losses, etc.
5k
SD

equity (%) fine (%) jail time (%)
5k in winnings, don't claim: 71.0956 % 68.44% 02.66%{go for it}
5k in winnings, claim: 28.9044 % 26.25% 02.66% { busto }

savings, don't claim, $1250 88%=1100
loss, claim, ($1250) 12% + penalty 50% + interest y=(775)
EV+

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats it, I'm not claiming. Seems pretty clear it is worth the risk. Do you mind if I show this to the IRS if I get audited.

[NickMPK]

Last year (my first year playing poker), I just enter my net win under "Gambling Winnings" (it was about 3K). I will probably net about 10K this year.

I have no idea how I would seperate out wins and losses. How does the IRS define a gambling event for this purpose? Is each hand a separate win or loss? Each session? Each day? If I am playing multiple tables is each table a seperate win/loss?

[RemyXO]

[ QUOTE ]
Your taxes are your bill for living in this country. If you don't like it, get the f*ck out. If you don't like how they're spent, use your vote, which I'm sure most of you don't do. That's what makes this country great, you can vote & change things.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL @ trollaments /images/graemlins/smile.gif
Correction: "This is what USED TO make this country great, you could vote and change things".
How many things have you changed by voting lately?

[GBP04]

if you wanted to make things easy couldn't you just say you won a tournament for however much you made for the year? Just say you played like six times, lost five, and won a whole tournament once. Pay tax on that and it's easy? I mean, is there any way for the IRS to even check something like this? I haven't made more than $500 so I haven't had to deal with these taxes too much.

[mttsemipro]

You can file as a pro gambler, but i guess you are right otherwise. There is a thread somewhere that talks about who classifies as a pro.

[GBP04]

[ QUOTE ]
That's what makes this country great, you can vote & change things.

[/ QUOTE ]

...lol

[ QUOTE ]
That's what makes this country suck, if you're rich you can buy lobbyists & change things, otherwise you're screwed.

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

[RED_RAIN]

[ QUOTE ]
i net my wins and losses because my state (wi) doesn't allow you to deduct losses. if i didn't i would have paid over half my income last year in state tax, not to mention the ~30% that went to the feds.

[/ QUOTE ]

this is completely wrong and you don't get to net just because you can't deduct, you can deduct from federal so you might not pay much or any, but state you just get screwed...but that is the legal way

[vilemerchant]

The thing that gets me with paying tax on poker, what if I lose 100K this year and revert back to being a lifetime loser at poker. Will I get my taxes back? Of course not. It's like you're betting with a bookie who takes your bets but never pays out when he loses.

[N 82 50 24]

I pay my taxes simply for peace of mind.

Who pays quarterly estimated taxes?

[Indiana]

[ QUOTE ]
I pay my taxes simply for peace of mind.

Who pays quarterly estimated taxes?

[/ QUOTE ]

Im really bad at this. My penalty this year should be around 500 bucks prolly. Usually its not that high but I won a lot in poker this year.

Indy

[NapoleonDolemite]

[ QUOTE ]
The thing that gets me with paying tax on poker, what if I lose 100K this year and revert back to being a lifetime loser at poker. Will I get my taxes back? Of course not. It's like you're betting with a bookie who takes your bets but never pays out when he loses.

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand your point, but comparing the US government to bookies is just plain unfair to bookies.

[drexah]

I am 19 years old and a college student. I have a savings account. I was at about 11k but now about 500 due to paying tuition. I also have a checking account with about $70 in it, althouh last summer i won about $9k playing online poker and have basically spent it all. I am very uneducated when it comes to this stuff but basically I am wondering if I really have anything to worry about since I don't even file my own taxes, i'm not even sure if my parents do. BTW I haven't had a job in about a year.

[Goldman]

My question is whether it’s more likely to cause trouble if I incorrectly claim my winnings or if I don’t claim them at all. I’ve been playing online for a little over a year and I view it is as a recreation and not as a source of income. I’ve had a small amount of success and I’m up about 2k, but I’ve never kept any kind of records. I can’t imagine how I could ever reconstruct the total of all my winning sessions and the total of all my losing sessions.

I’m really not worried about the tax liability and I would like to pay the taxes on it so that I don’t have to worry about it coming back on me down the road. However, my concern is that if I declare 2k of gambling income without any documentation it will put a flag on my filing and invite scrutiny/audit. Part of me feels like the IRS is always going to raise an eyebrow on poorly documented income, and by declare it I’ll be invited them to come make my life difficult because it’s improperly documented and declared.

On the other hand, I imagine they probably have so much difficulty collecting taxes on small gambling winnings that they are just happy if you report at all and won’t do anything to discourage the behavior. Plus, my understanding is that tax auditors are under pressure to bring in money and absolutely hate to mess around with miniscule amounts of tax liability. I’ve read in this thread and other places gambling income under a certain threshold goes completely beneath the radar.

Is there any requirement that documentation be submitted with the filing, or is it sufficient to enter the amount of gambling income on the form? Does anyone have a sense of when, if ever, the IRS will take interest in small amounts of gambling income?

[Moonshine]

while we're in the business of bumping this thread, anybody have a link to a good thread on paying taxes (ie not this one)?

the search function is useless

[5thStreetHog]

[ QUOTE ]
while we're in the business of bumping this thread, anybody have a link to a good thread on paying taxes (ie not this one)?

the search function is useless

[/ QUOTE ] try this (http://www.pocketfives.com/DD6E4B33-181C-4E60-80FA-433BE6A8AF8C.aspx)

[fnord_too]

Sir Moonshine,

Get an accountant to do your taxes. I think I pay $350 for my CPA to prepare my taxes.

Just a few points (I am amazed at how [censored] clueless a lot of people are):

There are two very distict branches in reducing taxes: Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion. The former is no a crime, and is often even totally legit and legal, but we will concern ourselfs with avoidance that is not up to code. The latter is a felony. If you report all your income, you are not evading. You may make some outlandish deductions and claims, which may get caught and you may have to pony up what you owe in the best case and what you owe + penalties and interest in the worst. If you don't report your income, and you get caught, you are looking at much more unpleasant possibilities.

Just get an accountant and follow their advice. They will do what they can to help minimize the tax you pay, and may even be aggressive to the point where the IRS disallows some of the stuff (and you have to pay the difference), but you will have your ass covered AND have confidence that you paid about the least for what you earned.

Also, when they make suggestions like putting money in an IRA, do that if you can afford it. It never ceases to amaze me how financially blind a lot of good poker players are.

[Albert Moulton]

[ QUOTE ]
i think its morally wrong to pay federal taxes since ~50% goes to weapons.

[/ QUOTE ]

For the 7 years I was in the army, I guess I should have bought my own weapons. Now that I think about it, as an all volunteer Army, it really ought to be BYOW (bring your own weapons) anyway. Moreover, individual weapons purchases should be tax deductable, or at least come out of pretax earnings.

Finally, since everyone should be armed with tax-deductable weaponry, we should replace our standing armed forces with mandatory weekend militia drills for the common defense, and we should only get activated to full time in the event of an actual land invasion. Cruise ships, cargo ships, and airlines should arm themselves, too, since we shouldn't be buying those expensive warplanes planes, missiles and ships.

I am now convinced that a United States with a universal, unprofessional militia with no force projection capabilities would make the world a much safer, and more peaceful place. Plus, we'd pay less taxes.


Speaking of taxes, I make less than 10K playing poker, but I always report everything I won to the best of my abilitiy. It's all pretty small potatoes, but I pay because I think its the right thing to do.

[Psydoc]

Bumping for the new year, with a couple interesting ideas from the thread quoted below:

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Netting wins and losses = illegal and subject to audit. I don't really care, but there are better ways to fudge your numbers than doing that.

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It's not that cut and dried - a lot depends on your situation. Read the rules for the various categories. For me, netting as hobby income was the most apropos choice available. No other category fit as well.

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I just use my bank ledger as a record. A deposit = a loss and a cashout a win. I declare gambling winnings hope this keeps working.

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In the alternative, does anyone have easy instructions for getting daily win/losses out of your postgres db?