Ed Miller's Tax Article - Page 9

BarronVangorToth · #81 11-10-2005, 08:56 AM

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how the irs or anyone else would ever know you had money in an offshore account. the money doesn't seem to exist until its moved to america. if you never move it it never exists..it seems like when ur in the casino, you dont have to pay taxes while you are in action only when you cash out.

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This isn't the same thing. As Ed (and others) have said in other replies, I'm not a tax professional, but I know enough to know that if you believe that you don't owe tax on your winnings just because it's all sitting in your Party Poker / Neteller / whatever account, you are wrong. You may be able to get away with it ... and you may not. But it's definitely taxable.

I think anyone making money at poker would be well-served finding a quality tax professional.

Barron Vangor Toth
BarronVangorToth.com

driller · #82 11-10-2005, 12:12 PM

Agree with Fox's reply. If you have US income, you owe US taxes regardless of citizenship. If you have foreign income and are a US resident, you probably owe US taxes. If a lot of cash flows into your US bank account, and you get audited, you will probably have to explain where the cash came from.

driller · #83 11-10-2005, 12:17 PM

One thing that I've observed about dealing with the IRS is that if the amount involved is big, then get a professional.

Often the amount owed can be negotiated way down. By a pro.

driller · #84 11-10-2005, 12:24 PM

Their names are Yolanda S. Roche, E.A. and Roger C. Roche, E.A., tax consultants. They are not attorneys or cpa's. The link to their website is <u>http://www.rbstaxes.com/</u>. I think their book may be somewhat out of date. They publish articles in Cardplayer

driller · #85 11-10-2005, 12:33 PM

By the time tax time rolled around for 2004 (April of 2005) I was having a pretty good year. Even though I lost some money in 2004, I decided that I would account for my gambling winnings/losses according to the rules for a non professional (which I am since gambling will never be my primary source of income as long as I'm working).

Anyway reporting my gross winnings of some 80,000 +/- (another reason to have poker tracker)and then deducting the same amount on Schedule A resulted in an increased tax liability of about $3000. I don't know exactly why that happened, but I did with and without in TurboTax and that was the result.

I went ahead and paid the extra tax because I don't want them to ask next year if I started playing on 1/1/05.

driller · #86 11-10-2005, 12:40 PM

In pt you can export all of your sessions to an excel spread sheet. Then you can set up a plus column and a minus column and some "if statements" to put the results of each session in the appropiate column. The sum of the plus col is your gross winnings and the sum of the minus col is your gross losses. There are probably more elegant ways to do it, but this works.

driller · #87 11-10-2005, 12:48 PM

According to their book The Tax Guide for Gamblers and their articles in Cardplayer, people for whom gambling is their primary source of income and their primary occupation can file with Schedule C as Ed suggests. This has been upheld. Plus I'm sure that many pros do it every year, probably even Ed, although I'm sure he is making more as an author now.

driller · #88 11-10-2005, 12:55 PM

Aside from the gross income aspects, if you file on Schedule C, you can deduct legitimate expenses, which you can't do as a recreational gambler.

driller · #89 11-10-2005, 01:32 PM

Also the US government could go to Party and say something like, "So far we have been pretty much turning a blind eye to your activities. Turn over the financial records of your US clients or we will bring the hammer down."

Nomad84 · #90 11-10-2005, 11:41 PM

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In pt you can export all of your sessions to an excel spread sheet. Then you can set up a plus column and a minus column and some "if statements" to put the results of each session in the appropiate column. The sum of the plus col is your gross winnings and the sum of the minus col is your gross losses. There are probably more elegant ways to do it, but this works.

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This is probably not the best way though, since you will overestimate your tax liability with this method. The exact definition of a "session" as it pertains to online gambling hasn't really been established, but I think it is reasonable to consider any given period of time that I am playing multiple tables to all be a part of one session. If I play for 4 hours on a total of 8 different tables (including table switches), take a 10 minute break to go to the restroom and grab a snack, then play 3 more hours at 7 different tables, that will show up as 15 sessions in PT, but I would tend to think of it as one 7-hour session. Because of that, I feel that it is reasonable to net my earnings during that session rather than reporting a few winning sessions and a few losing sessions for that time period. I could be very wrong, but I think it would be an easy stance to argue.