LC: Bonus Whores (US vs non-US players)

[MyTurn2Raise]

I used to bonus whore like crazy...I had 20k in bonuses from January through the end of September last year

I'm US

not worth it anymore

too much of a hassle to move money around without neteller and firepay

if you play a ton, goto stars as the VIP VPP stuff works out for better than rakeback

if you play moderate amounts, absolute and fulltilt with rakeback are now the best options for US


oh yeah, prima still has some games if you aren't in the FUBAR states

[coyote]

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80k in winnings here is probably worth 60k there, even with taxes taken out.

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That might be so, its certainly cheaper to live in the US, but do you really only pay 25% tax? ANyhow, we get free healthcare, low crime, gun control and less fat kids (I love the US but I hate fat children and the US is full of them)

Anyhow, I read that to avoid US taxes you have to give up US citizenship even if you move abroad, who would want to do that for the love of poker I wonder!

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No, we pay far more than 25%, its just not all called federal income tax. We have real-estate taxes, state income taxes, social security tax (~9% right there) on your wages, sales tax, etc...etc, gas taxes, alcohol tax, cigarette taxes, (basically most vices are taxed in some way). Also, as your income goes up so does your income tax rate. We are nickel and dimed to death with taxes.


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It is pretty safe to assume that the overall USA tax rate approaches 50% of Gross Income when all taxes are taken into account.

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no it's not.

[HitmanHaydon]

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You need to move to Europe. Plenty whoring and poker winnings are 100% tax free. I can't understand why you guys haven't all arrived already (no you can't live in my spare room).


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Isn't the cost of living much higher? Also the fact that the Euro is crushing the dollar right now.

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Tell me about it. £ vs $ really sucks at the moment

[SimaoMacaco]

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You need to move to Europe. Plenty whoring and poker winnings are 100% tax free. I can't understand why you guys haven't all arrived already (no you can't live in my spare room).


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Isn't the cost of living much higher? Also the fact that the Euro is crushing the dollar right now.

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Tell me about it. £ vs $ really sucks at the moment

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Not if you want to go shopping in the US with you GBPs. Everything seems so so cheap. That said it would be nice if my bankroll got bigger rather than smaller on a daily basis =D

We best hope China does not dump those 1.3 Trillion US dollars they have been stock piling for the last 10 years.

[jhill3535]

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80k in winnings here is probably worth 60k there, even with taxes taken out.

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That might be so, its certainly cheaper to live in the US, but do you really only pay 25% tax? ANyhow, we get free healthcare, low crime, gun control and less fat kids (I love the US but I hate fat children and the US is full of them)

Anyhow, I read that to avoid US taxes you have to give up US citizenship even if you move abroad, who would want to do that for the love of poker I wonder!

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No, we pay far more than 25%, its just not all called federal income tax. We have real-estate taxes, state income taxes, social security tax (~9% right there) on your wages, sales tax, etc...etc, gas taxes, alcohol tax, cigarette taxes, (basically most vices are taxed in some way). Also, as your income goes up so does your income tax rate. We are nickel and dimed to death with taxes.


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It is pretty safe to assume that the overall USA tax rate approaches 50% of Gross Income when all taxes are taken into account.

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no it's not.

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What would you estimate? More or Less?

[Teddie]

Do professional poker players get taxed in the US?

[1p0kerboy]

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Do professional poker players get taxed in the US?


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Oh yeah.

We pay a 15% self employment tax on top of our regular income tax.

Uncle Sam is a greedy old man. But I guess they need all that money to start wars and rebuild other countries.

[jack frost]

No offense but if your really paying any where near 50% of your yearly income in taxes you are dumb. The filthy rich have a tax rate some where around 50% and NONE of them are paying any where near that. For god sake get an IRA and max it out contribute to a 401k look for every possible tax deduction you can. You guy's playing pro should be writing off a home office,electric,phone some mileage on your car. If you have a decent accountant doing your taxes you should be doing well playing cards in the tax department.

[jhill3535]

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No offense but if your really paying any where near 50% of your yearly income in taxes you are dumb. The filthy rich have a tax rate some where around 50% and NONE of them are paying any where near that. For god sake get an IRA and max it out contribute to a 401k look for every possible tax deduction you can. You guy's playing pro should be writing off a home office,electric,phone some mileage on your car. If you have a decent accountant doing your taxes you should be doing well playing cards in the tax department.

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First off, I have a real job, with good pay.

Second, we aren't just talking about income tax, it is all taxes, Federal Income, State Income, State and local sales tax, gas tax, luxury taxes, property taxes, and many others that are generally overlooked like Social Security and Medicare.

On the subject of Social Security and Medicare, remember that what comes out of your tax is really only half of what you pay in for these. Your employer is also contributing half and if he wasn't, then your wages would likely be that much higher.

So how much does the average US citizen pay in taxes?

The average American worker pays 28% in Federal Income Taxes, Payroll taxes of 7.65% (double this to 15.3% because employer is doubling this), State income taxes average 6% (some states are 0, but some are as high as 12%), state and local sales tax verys up to 10% in Louisiana down to 0 in some states, but those states usually have higher state income taxes, so lets use 6% here, and now we are already up to 55.3% of your income in taxes and we haven't even talked about property taxes and the other various taxes.

So 50% is probably on the low end of the estimate.

[effang]

no one's paying 50%. it's what we're gross taxed.