taxes

do you pay tax for your wins?

not my business.........but the whole issue is so complicated. some people say you have to, some say you dont. some say only professional gamblers have to. some say casinos report transactions above 10 000, others say "in the neighbourhood of" it. "There is no way the irs can find out whether you're paying tax or not" "there is" "it's illegal to "willfully" evade taxes" etc... how do i know if i´m a professional or regular gambler?

To the IRS,a professional gambler has no other job. If you get a W-2 from any source,you can't claim to be a pro gambler.
The IRS expects you to pay taxes on every dollar you get,no matter where it comes from.

But paying taxes on your winnings is -EV

Honestly unless you are making gobs of money I wouldn't sweat it. I make sure I never cashout for more than will make me have to fill out paperwork.

Now if I hit a jackpot, I will be paying taxes. But my blackjack winnings will be left alone.

but if i dont get a w2 from any other source and dont claim to be a professional gambler?

Now if I hit a jackpot, I will be paying taxes. But my blackjack winnings will be left alone.[/QUOTE]

that's what im thinking too

All I did was post what the IRS expects of you,as a good upstanding citizen.
Failure to pay taxes on any amount of income is against their rules.
The fact that you almost definetly not get caught should not be a factor.
Is the only reason you don't commit crimes because you are afraid or being caught,or is it because you were raised properly?

Yep, you are indeed supposed to report and pay taxes on all gambling winnings.

It's not something I'm personally doing.

Incidentally, it's probably a +EV idea for civilians to keep track of their wins and losses during the year. Because they might hit a jackpot, which will be automatically reported, and they'll want losses to offset it.

Since we're all theoretically playing a winning game here, accurately reporting results would just add even more to the tax burden.

I realize rules are rules, laws are laws, but...

EasyRhino said:

Yep, you are indeed supposed to report and pay taxes on all gambling winnings.

Click to expand...

This wouldn't be so bad if you could deduct your losses in a losing year, but you can't. Seems a little unfair, you know?

shadroch said:

Failure to pay taxes on any amount of income is against their rules.

Click to expand...

That's sort of "in question" over at the ZenZone. Can you find any law specifically requiring the payment of income taxes? If there isn't one, then it is not against their rules. I have yet to see such a law, but I don't know where to look.

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc426.html (Archive copy)

First bullet point.