At what point do you need to worry about reporting your earnings? Assuming you have a job that pays the bills. Obviously if you didn't have a job (like me, I'm going back to school) there might be a point where you would have to report it. I think someone mentioned to me $100k which classified you as a professional gambler, anyone know? If this is the case then I will never have to worry about it.

Thanks

Man...

Just dont wory about that!

I mean, if you win a WPT event, maybe there it will be a bit easier for them to prouve it but making even 5 000$ (or even more) a month on the web is simply undetectable...

KJ

Really?

My mom has an economics degree, and when she found out I'd cashed out $600 from PartyPoker she immediately started nagging me about reporting it.

Let's wait for Steve-O to speak up... he probably knows the deal better than we do.

__________________
"Last night I stayed up late playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died."
-Stephen Wright

I used to play the DogTrack and if you hit for more than $600 on a $1 ticket you had to report it. That is when you went to cash it out they had you fill out a W-9 (I think) before you could get your money. Of course playing on the internet from our homes is a different story. One thing I know for sure is if you don't have any job, yet year in year out your paying your bills, your going to be investigated. I figure as long as you have a job that can support your bills then your OK as long as you don't go buying new Porsches.

legally you have to report all the winnings, as far as what you can get away with, I'm not sure

Here's a question though... what about B&M players who don't "cash out," they just keep a bankroll? It's hard for them to consider any of their winnings to be income, since they could always lose them the next night...

What if you win $500,000 worth of pots per year, but you lose $450,000, and that's how you grind out fifty grand? How do you pay taxes on your half million?

__________________
"Last night I stayed up late playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died."
-Stephen Wright

of course you don't, you can deduct gambling losses against your gambling wins to find your taxable income

try these:

http://www.pokertracker.com/forum/vi...ighlight=taxes
http://www.pokertracker.com/forum/vi...ighlight=taxes

i know they are PT specific, but there is good some documentation issues discussed....

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You should PM Steve-o and ask him how he deals with it.

Or you could just pull an Alex and not report anything.

LOL

Do I report all of it? no. Am I legally obligated to? Yes

A lot of this depends on how you cash out and of course how much. If you have an extra $20,000 in your bank account and get auditted you better be able to explain it. I like to keep my cashouts small usually no more than $500 checks (yes I have them send me paper checks) so I can give 1 out of 2 or 3 to my Mother let her cash it and give me the cash. She can explain it as I borrowed money from her years ago and am paying it back, or some other story. this way my income appears about 1/2 what it is, but I have to blow through all that extra cash to which is such a downer

As far as when I would report it, as far as amounts go, I would say anything more than 1/5th of your income from your job anything less you can say is from collecting bottles and cans if they ask where it came from. It will be hard for them to find out why you have $60,000 deposited in your account when your work checks total 54K, but if your work checks total 12K and you have 60K you have some explaining to do.

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Thank you John McCain for picking a woman who represents the worst-case scenario: A cute wild buffoon who is proud to be dumb.