SNG players and taxes unreasonable?

[adanthar]

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Amazing, you really think some paper pusher at the IRS is going to great lengths to define what a session is? Everyone here seems to analyze tax situations to death. It's very simple... the amount of money that you made OVERALL at the end of the year is what your income is. I've been playing professionally for 6 years and this is exactly how I've reported and how my CPA has suggested I report my winnings.

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That's exactly how a professional gambler is suppose to report their income. That is definetly NOT how a NON professional gambler is suppose to report their income


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if somebody's playing $500 SNG's and beats them, they're a pro gambler.

they let a woman with a real job, 11K in wins and 40K in losses stipulate to being a tourney pro - nobody with figures like these from $500 SNG's needs to worry about this.

[yellowdoyle]

Are you serious Adanthar?

So say I claim about 15k in winnings or something, despite having a different part time job, I could still file as a pro? Then I would only have to pay taxes on my net?

[adanthar]

In the OP, we're talking about 150K. With a net of 150K on a high volume of play, my (non legal advice understanding blah blah blah) is that you'd have to get the worst auditor ever to be worried about whether you were a pro or not, regardless of whether you have another job. The IRS is not really in the business of preventing you from paying SE tax. I am in this position (I had a job in 2006, but made 10x the income from poker) and will obviously file as a pro.

In your situation, I suspect that tax wise, depending on your state, you'd likely be better off filing as a recreational gambler. However, if you don't have good records, filing as a pro *does* sidestep a bunch of audit issues, at the cost of (my best wild guess would be an extra 1-2K from the SE tax). At that point, if somebody decides to review your file, the first thing they'll find is that you'll owe less taxes if they fight your classification. Again, I am not a CPA, don't specialize in tax law, etc, but you can draw your own conclusions.

[curtains]

Everyone talks about all these crazy ass laws, has ANYONE ever heard of an example where someone reported their total winnings and then paid their share of taxes on them, gotten any heat whatsoever? Do you know how many people there are that don't pay their taxes at all (a lot), do you really think they are going to go crazy over some silliness like this when you are actually being honest?

[yellowdoyle]

Curtains, very good point.

I am sure if I just added my net on top of my part time job income, the IRS would think they have bigger fish to fry than me.

[E.Z.]

OP, you should go ask the arbies over in the sports forum what they think.

i looked up glove55 on sharksscope fulltilt sng's and he's had wins/losses in the 6 figures easily.

but he's down 100k and uncle sam wants his cut of those winnings??

[curtains]

Not sure if you are pulling my chain or not yellowdoyle. Its just that we see these threads time and time again. I know tons of people who file and not a single one of them files with each day being a seperate session, even those who don't file as pros. As far as I know they have never been hassled by the IRS and have not heard a single specific example of anyone who has been confronted by the IRS about this part of the law. I do however see tons of examples of people preemptively freaking out because of this law.

Of course I could be wrong, I just really can't believe that this would be a big deal to them. If you pay what you owe within reason (aka taxes on your net), I'm willing to gamble that nothing bad will happen.

It's like coming onto some forum and bitching about how jaywalking is technically illegal and how ridiculous is that that you can't cross the street when no cars are coming. There are lots of laws that aren't really strictly enforced, and I'm pretty sure this is one of them.

Again I may be wrong but until I hear an example of someone on 2+2 or someone that I know personally being screwed by this rule, I'm going to assume that it's something that's safe to ignore if you must.

Now of course you will then see tons of articles like the one in the 2+2 magazine telling you how you have to file each day as a session and random people scaremongering you for no good reason. I mean I know freaking people who havent filed taxes for years and have gotten away with it, you really think the IRS is going to go crazy on some technicality?

I just find all these threads to be mindnumbingly stupid, along with the scaremongering articles that encourage them. There is no way in hell some recreational gambler who gets lucky one night at blackjack and wins a few grand, yet is maybe break even for the year, is going to report his win and then deduct all his losses. On top of that, there is no way in hell the IRS is going to hassle him for this.

Anyway I will be quiet, and patiently wait while someone comes forward whom has actually had a real life problem with this rule.

[cwar]

Really nice post curtains, thanks.

[curtains]

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Really nice post curtains, thanks.

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Ok be careful, Im not a big expert on this, its just my personal opinion.

[straight6]

is it possible for the IRS to do an inquiry at the pokersite you play?
and i mean not the amount you cashed out... but ask for playing records/handhistories
and do the pokersites give such information if tax services ask for it?

regards