This should end all of the false claims about paying US taxes on poker

[Lottery Larry]

Hopefully this gets stickied.

http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/current/Fox0207.html

[wpr101]

This one doesn't make sense:

"Myth #6. I can net my wins and my losses. Unless you’re a professional, the sum of your winning sessions are Other Income (line 21, Form 1040); your losing sessions, up to the amount of your winning sessions, are an itemized deduction taken on Schedule A. Professionals do get to net their results and file using Schedule C (Profit or Loss From Business). Professionals, though, must pay self-employment tax on their net income, at 15.3% of the first $94,000 of net income, and 2.9% above this (2006 numbers). While half of the self-employment tax is a deduction (line 27 of Form 1040), unless the professional earns a substantial six-figure income, he can pay more in tax."

So say a player plays ~5/10 NL 500,000 hands in year. Is he supposed to declare that he won $4,000,000 and lost $3,500,000? That is just rediculous. How the heck would you even keep track of all this? I mean yea you might have PT, but when you play on a different computer/different site?

[Berge20]

Our tax code isn't exactly a shining example of common sense....

[Sparta45]

[ QUOTE ]
Our tax code isn't exactly a shining example of common sense....

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT

[Soul Rebel]

[ QUOTE ]
This one doesn't make sense:


So say a player plays ~5/10 NL 500,000 hands in year. Is he supposed to declare that he won $4,000,000 and lost $3,500,000? That is just rediculous. How the heck would you even keep track of all this? I mean yea you might have PT, but when you play on a different computer/different site?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not difficult. You bust out a little program called Excel and record the results of every session on every site. I keep track of time played, beginning balance and ending balance for the session. Very simple.

[wpr101]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This one doesn't make sense:


So say a player plays ~5/10 NL 500,000 hands in year. Is he supposed to declare that he won $4,000,000 and lost $3,500,000? That is just rediculous. How the heck would you even keep track of all this? I mean yea you might have PT, but when you play on a different computer/different site?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not difficult. You bust out a little program called Excel and record the results of every session on every site. I keep track of time played, beginning balance and ending balance for the session. Very simple.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not a "very simple" thing to do. Do you even play poker? I am only declaring my net because it's the only thing that makes sense.

[RoundGuy]

[ QUOTE ]
This is not a "very simple" thing to do. Do you even play poker? I am only declaring my net because it's the only thing that makes sense.

[/ QUOTE ]
Ok. Have fun explaining that to the IRS.

IRS: Why are you not showing any gambling losses?
Hero: Because I netted my wins and losses
IRS: You can't do that.
Hero: But it's the only thing that makes sense.
IRS: But, you can't do that.
Hero: But it makes sense.
IRS: But you can't do that.

Gee, I wonder who's gonna win this argument....

[Lottery Larry]

[ QUOTE ]
This is not a "very simple" thing to do. Do you even play poker? I am only declaring my net because it's the only thing that makes sense.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a VERY simple thing to do, you just don't want to spend the effort on doing it.

And if you're expecting some mercy from the IRS, just because online poker is much more involved to do this for.... well, my bridge is still for sale.

[Soul Rebel]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This one doesn't make sense:


So say a player plays ~5/10 NL 500,000 hands in year. Is he supposed to declare that he won $4,000,000 and lost $3,500,000? That is just rediculous. How the heck would you even keep track of all this? I mean yea you might have PT, but when you play on a different computer/different site?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not difficult. You bust out a little program called Excel and record the results of every session on every site. I keep track of time played, beginning balance and ending balance for the session. Very simple.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not a "very simple" thing to do. Do you even play poker? I am only declaring my net because it's the only thing that makes sense.

[/ QUOTE ]

What are you talking about? If I didn't play professionally, I doubt I would bother to go into this sort of detail, as it would not be necessary. My income is about 65% online cash games, 20% MTTs, and 15% rakeback. I have 3 excel tabs within one spreadsheet, one for each of these.

For the cash sheet, I have 9 columns. Date, Time session started, time session ended, total time played, site, game played, starting balance, ending balance, profit, and loss.
I record all of these for every site every session.

So for the last few columns, excel automatically does the math between the starting and ending balance, which equals the session's outcome. I move that number into either the profit or loss column. As a result, my profits are all in one column, and losses are in another. I sum each of the columns, and presto, I have my total wins and total losses.

MTTs are easier, you subtract buyins from total winnings. I record similarly detailed information for every MTT I play, with separate columns for buyins, rebuys, and cashes.

Lastly, my rakeback sheet has a column for every site I play on, and I simply record how much I made at each site for each month. At the end of the year I add all that together for my total rakeback.

[Wongboy]

[ QUOTE ]
This is not difficult. You bust out a little program called Excel and record the results of every session on every site. I keep track of time played, beginning balance and ending balance for the session. Very simple.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please tell me how you define a session. The term is undefined by the IRS. Is it every hand, every year, or something else?