[DeadMoneyDad]

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Suppose, hypothetically, that a person was tired of paying taxes to the American government on his online poker winnings but, at the same time, did not have any realistic means of emigrating. Would getting a foreign account and paying taxes in that account's country be a way of achieving this goal? I'm not advocating any fraud, just paying taxes to a different government than the US government, because it seems illogical for a poker player to give financial support to the United States government as it continues to trounce us with its legislation and tax codes. It is my understanding that the interest gained on money in foreign accounts is taxed by either the country in which the account exists or by the country in which the account holder resides, but not both. Is this also true for income deposited in said account, earned from an offshore entity (like a poker site), or does residence always trump this?

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I am not a tax professional but do have some understanding of tax issues, and I did spend 9 years living overseas, although that was some time ago.

Taxes generally follow residency. It used to be if you were a US citizen living overseas, depending on how your income was derived a good portion of it wasn't taxed. Given advances in eletronic banking since I lived overseas I would imagine the IRS would want some proof of this now.

But given that a number of countries do not tax on-line gambling winnings. You would not only have to have a foriegn demoninated account but some form of address other than a US one to avoid electronically linking the money back to your US address.

It would seem to me unless you could visit the money and enjoy it there without bringing a substantial amount back, you are going to run into IRS/banking trouble somewhere.

D$D