Front Page of the Jacksonville Paper Yesterday

Penguinfan · #1 10-09-06, 03:34 PM

I'm assuming he meant we weren't able to write off losses. I do write off horse losses to offset the winnings, it 's a giant sized pain in the ass and I have to save all those tickets in boxes just in case I get audited.

Playing on-line you would think it would be easier to keep track of wins and losses, I know the on-line, legal, US-Based thoroughbred place I wager through sends me a statement every month as well as a cumulative one at the end of the year.

Talking Poker · #2 10-09-06, 04:37 PM

I use Poker Tracker for all of my online play, and I am certain that will be more than enough to make any auditor happy. My accountant was impressed with the sample reports I printed for her. For my live play, I track everything in a spreadsheet. But yes, you HAVE to write off your losing sessions if you are going to claim all of your winning ones (as you are supposed to). You're not supposzed to just say, "Yeah, I netted $10,000 last year playing poker" and try to pay taxes on that. You're supposed to declare your $160,000 in winning sessions and your $150,000 in losing sessions (I'm making up numbers, but you get the point). This ends up causing some problems for OTHER deductions you may have been able to take (because they are based on your Total Gross Income (BEFORE deductions), which is now grossly inflated), but I still don't think you should ever owe more in taxes on your poker winnings than the winnings themselves.

Penguinfan · #3 10-09-06, 06:09 PM

OK, how about this, you play high stakes PLO8, say $1000/$2000 and we are going by the $5999 figure us horse players go by. You raise pre-flop with one caller, you guys raise and re-raise and finally build a $14,000 pot, you split it and drag a pot worth $7,000 which you have to pay taxes on.

You wouldn't have any real losses to show, but be obligated to pay the tax on the pot you "won".

Now I admit I am reaching here, but it could happen.

Talking Poker · #4 10-09-06, 06:32 PM

The more you write, the less I think you have any understanding of poker and taxes.

1. You don't pay taxes on "pots," and certainly not on the gross amount of money in each pot. You pay on the totals from all of your winning and losing "sessions." I mean, how would people even track it the other way? Do you think there is a Bellagio employee sitting at every high stakes table handing out 1099s for each and every pot played all night? LOL...

2. Poker is not the same as horse racing, so I have no idea why you are comparing the two.

3. If, somehow, you played just ONE POT for the entire year and then quit, as described above, you didn't win $14,000 - or $7000. You broke even (I'm not couting any blinds that may have been in the hand, because you didn't mention any). So, you would claim $0 on your taxes.

You haven't really been claiming the GROSS amount from every single POT you have ever won, have you??? I mean, that would be millions and millions of dollars, even for a medium stakes player. That's ridiculous.

I STRONGLY suggest you do a little bit of research on poker and taxes. We've had some good threads on the topic in this forum in the past, but I'm sure there are countless other threads/articles on the subject elsewhere on the net as well. At a bare minimum, please call an accountant and have a 5 minute conversation with them on the BASICS of how to claim poker/gambling related winnings.