[pyedog]

So as someone who enjoys gambling, isn't it a better bet to just not pay taxes on poker winnings and then put the onus on the government to prove that we have to pay taxes on poker and to somehow prove in court that we have a "reasonable expecatation of profit". That term is so vague. Yes I've never had a losing month in the past two years. However tonight I could win $1K or I could lose $1K and I honestly have no idea which one it will be. I think that winning is more likely but I'm not sure how reasonable of an expectation of profit that it is. If I do win then I feel that I'll have to get extremely lucky to do so.

How severe would the penalty be for not paying taxes on something that is pretty debatable to begin with? The CRA wouldn't send someone to prison for not paying taxes on something that is arguably a windfall would they? Or does the fact that someone got lucky and won $100K playing poker while unemployed make them liable for large fines or imprisonment?

I know that nobody would suggest committing a crime, but paying taxes on poker winnings in Canada seems so debatable, unlike US laws which are clear cut. It seems to me that the better approach is to just gamble and not pay them and put the onus on the government to prove that we had a "reasonable expectation of profit" after the fact, whatever that means. Won't they just make you pay the missing taxes anyways, plus some interest on top of that? I don't know anything about tax laws so I'm just speculating.