HUGE BRAG: Debt-Free! (long long long)

[Gary The Retard]

[ QUOTE ]
if you don't pay taxes, yea, there's a good chance you'll get away with it and never pay the price, sure.

But if you do get audited, then it may not be until 5 or so years later, the gubment will charge you interest+penalties on what you already owe and you may face felony charges.

IMO, it isn't worth the risk, but many would disagree.

Fortunately, I make so little from poker that I'm not worried.

[/ QUOTE ]

ok, I just obv thought from his OP that no taxes were ever paid on what seems to be ~25k in poker winnings...

depending on his salary and tax braket, he could be in for a rude awakening ina few years or nothing

[DING-DONG YO]

I didn't read the whole OP, but I do hope PJ paid taxes on this winnings esp if his winnings are a significant source of his total income which I suspect they are.

[Seraphim]

tl;dr

[Gary The Retard]

[ QUOTE ]
I didn't read the whole OP, but I do hope PJ paid taxes on this winnings esp if his winnings are a significant source of his total income which I suspect they are.

[/ QUOTE ]

if he needed it to climb out 25k in debt I'd say at least 1/3 of his income is a result of poker

[felix83]

[ QUOTE ]
tl;dr

[/ QUOTE ]

useful as always

[Ace-Ex]

Yep I think you should think about keeping playing until you can pay the taxes you owe as well. the IRS is a bitch, isn't it? It doesn't seem fair that they can tax you from doing something that really has no point.

Anyway, be careful not to end up like me--out of debt, right back into debt AND owing the IRS a lot of money. Keep working at it. If my business comes together as I'm hoping, then I might be back out of debt again and ready to buy a house.

[CaptainBusto]

[ QUOTE ]
CLICK MOUSE LOSE DEBT

[/ QUOTE ]

[nickg1532]

congrats. I wish I only had 25k in debt, though (law school).

[private joker]

[ QUOTE ]
Best BBV post in recent memory, very inspiring.

A few questions (not to be a downer, butttt):

1) do you plan on paying taxes because this might affect your whole debt-free thing, and if so what are you going to do? Go back into cc debt?

2) what did your girlfriend/family/friends think of you using gambling to get out of debt? How did they react to this whole situation?

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, thanks everybody for all the great comments. Very cool to see so many people post with similar situations and a positive outlook.

1) This thread has a lot of questions about taxes, but I did file my poker winnings in 2005 and paid. I am filing again for 2006 and will pay taxes, and I have the money to cover it -- that was included in my debts and profits.

2) I met my girlfriend at the Bike, during an 8/16 game. Her father runs a casino and her whole family are poker players and gamblers, so she certainly didn't mind.

My parents, I didn't even tell them I was in that much debt. Only some of it was school loans -- the rest of it was CC debt I racked up in L.A. while trying to pay off everything else. I didn't want them to worry about me and I didn't want to ask them for money. This money was my responsiblity and I was going to pay it myself. But eventually, somewhere around mid-2005, they started to catch on and worry for me about my finances. I told them I had some things going on. Finally I had to tell them about poker, and luckily they were smart enough to see that it's a profitable venture and not some gambling thing. Now I have the results to prove it and they're proud of me. (I even taught my dad how to calculate outs when you flop a flush draw and have 35% equity in the pot).

[tom10167]

I posted twice and neither went through so cliff notes:

You're awesome, congratulations; how old are you?