![[As]](http://livepokerforum.com/images/smilies/As.gif "The Ace of Spades")
I use a local tax guy that has been doing taxes for over 25 years.
For the year 2006, I probably made about 10-12 G's from online poker. I withdrew about $8,000 to my bank account. When it came tax time, I declared my gambling winnings as $8,000. I played some live poker and probably lost about $2,000. So I deducted that much in gambling losses.
In 2006 I was layed off from my company, so I got a nice severence package. So my income was higher that year, and was just over 100k. According to my taxes, I made $6,000 in poker. I had to pay an extra $2,500 in taxes because of it. 42%. Rediculous. Sure, it might have been because I was in a higher tax bracket, but rediculous non-the-less.
2007 I made about the same from online poker: 10-12 G's. I withdrew about $6,000 or so to may bank and declared that much as gambling winnings. I played more live poker (went to vegas, etc...) and sucked. I claimed $4,000 in losses. I was much happier with the tax results in 2007
I keep a notepad with all of my live sessions, which I have been told is what to do. I am not totally honest about it, but I'm ok with that. I keep all of my tournament receipts and all of my withdrawel slips.
My tax guy has been doing taxes for 25 years and he gets a lot a lot a lot of people who claim gambling winnings. Of course, all of them are from people who play slots/table games at the indian casinos. In those 25 years, he has had a total of two people ever claim a profit from gambling: A guy who won $100,00 in the lottery, and me. That's it. Everyone else claims the exact same number they had as winnings for their losses.
My tax guy is ok with how we are doing it. He said that claiming some winnings is far far better than claiming nothing at all. I am a small small fish in the eyes of the IRS.
If I ever do get audited, I am just some casual poker player who wins online with the occasional online tournament score. "What Mr IRS? Do I have detail on my online sessions? I just play once a week or so in some $20-$50 tournaments (Shows them my MTT excel spreadsheet)."
I know this isn't the "correct" way to do taxes, but I would sooner not play poker than do it the correct way. I would probably lose money on the deal with regards to all the other kid/mortgage/charitable deductions I get. There is absolutely no way in H E double hockey sticks I will do that.
Oh, and if I were to guess what the percentage of casual poker players who make less than $10,000 and claim all of thier winning the "correct" way is, I would say it is probably 0.1 %. And that is probably being generous.
[This post will self destruct in 1 week]