Never played Stars, just how good are FPPs?

[Martin Aigner]

OK, I understand that for those who have to pay taxes (mostly americans), you HAVE to pay taxes on everythig you gain by playing poker. This is your winning, bonuses, RB, jackpots, whatever.

Now since all the above mentioned things are money, which in most (all?) cases are put directly into your poker account, the tax thing is easy. Therefore, those of you who have to pay and actually do pay taxes will do so for all the possible ways of income by playing poker.

Now I also do understand that you HAVE to pay taxes on all the things you buy via FPP. There might be a difference though in handling IMHO. Now don´t get me wrong, I´m certainly not calling on somebody to mess with the IRS, but I could imagine in my sick brain that somebody actually forgot to mention a $500 gift card from Amazon (or whatever) to add to his poker winnings. And if so, the IRS might have hard times to get this to its knowledge. Actually, I wouldn´t see any way for them to do it, unless they screen the computer for deleted messages, which is hardly likely.

Am I wrong here? This would make the FPP system a pretty good deal for those who suffer on Alzheimer´s disease while filling their tax computations.

NOTE: Don´t assume that I ever did anything like this. I´m european and therefore don´t have to pay taxes on my poker winnings.