UK Poker winnings question - how to deposit cash?

[TomC]

Hi Guys,

Ok, so go easy on me I'm a n00b to finance.

I'm living in the UK and working full time, I'm 23 and rent my property (i.e. no loans/no mortgage). I earn £17k / year from my job which equals approx £1k / month after tax.

I've been playing poker quite a lot over the last 12 months or so and I'm getting to the stage now where I'm starting to earn serious money from it (by serious I mean, relative to my salary rather than relative to shipithollaballas).

I'm currently making around £2k - £4k / month from live poker which means I have a lot of cash floating around. Now my understanding is that poker winnings are not taxable in the UK however if I start depositing this much cash in my bank each month I'm worried someone might catch on! Is there a good way of depositing it as poker winnings or do I need to 'declare' this money?

Also - does any of this change if I decide to quit my job? There is the option for me to work for myself (doing web design type stuff) which would mean I would have to file tax returns etc, would I then need to declare this money on that form? I've never done anything like fill out a tax return...

All help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

PS - Hope this is the right forum. If not please feel free to move it.

[Jay.]

dont worry about this at all, just deposit it. ive wired £50k in £5k cash outs over 2 days and nothing happened.

the only time ive ever had to explain is when i wanted a 15k bankers cheque writen out and they said "i guess you dont work at costco anymore like we have on file?" after that the banker had trouble believing people win at poker, heh.

also if you quit you dont have to do anything either. no forms.

[TomC]

Really??

But I thought there were rules/checks in place to stop people doing this kind of thing? Like if I was a builder/plumber and got paid in cash they could just deposit their money into their bank with no issues?

Still, I guess that's encouraging. Thanks for your response.

T

[kimchi]

[ QUOTE ]
Really??

But I thought there were rules/checks in place to stop people doing this kind of thing? Like if I was a builder/plumber and got paid in cash they could just deposit their money into their bank with no issues?

T

[/ QUOTE ]

Money earned from building/plumbing is taxable in the UK, gambling winnings are not.

If I were you, I'd try and use cash to buy stuff/pay bills/rent and let your wages accumulate in your bank. I'd also dump a lot of it into ISAs, or at least into a pension. This way, the government will not only not take tax out of your winnings, but they will contribute up to 40% to your pension as if you did pay tax...