it is not a felony to not pay your taxes
it is a felony to lie on your tax form

Im pretty sure Im spot on, and will maintain that position until shown otherwise.

there is no debtor jail in america

Evading taxes is a felony. Not filing a return is a misdemeanor and could lead to a year in jail.


Tax Evasion

Tax evasion is the broad term to describe cheating on your taxes in various ways. Cheating on your taxes is a felony act. Punishment for tax evasion, which includes not paying your taxes, can result in you spending up to five years in a federal prison. The federal government can also require you to pay fines of up to $250,000 for an individual and $500,000 for businesses.

Filing False Returns

The second primary law for not paying your taxes is when you purposely file false or inaccurate tax returns. This can include purposely using misleading or incorrect information. The filing of false tax returns is a felony. The crime of filing a false tax return can carry both a monetary and prison time punishment. Knowingly filing false returns can land you in a federal prison for up to three years, and requires individuals to pay fines of up to $250,000 and businesses to pay fines of up to $500,000.

Not Filing Taxes

The third law that applies to not filing tax returns at all is a misdemeanor rather than a felony. Since not filing a tax return is the least serious of the three crimes, it also carries the least in punishments. If you do not file a tax return, you may spend up to one year in prison or pay fines of up to $100,000. Businesses may pay fines of up to $200,000. In addition, you must pay all of the taxes you owe.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/feder...axes-4992.html

lol thanks bye.

Seems like a lot of semantics. Im not sure if either is a felony but if your choice is to file and then not be able to pay or to just not file... you should obviously file.

you offer so much to the conversation. I see you know exactly what youre talking about

Like I said, if someone can show me the law that says you will go to jail for not paying your taxes then I will change my position.

If I am wrong Im fairly confident that the IRS has to prove that you were able to pay your taxes and that you intentionally did not.

You can however not pay taxes and have all your property and what not seized by the IRS, but if you have no property, then there isnt much to seize now is there?

one of the main benefits of paying income tax is that after a few years (3 I think) you can use the income reported as income on loans and what not, which will basically help you more than it will hurt you, providing you invest and manage money well

why bother seriously with an obvious troll?

Are you trolling? Because I certainly am not

I was THIS close to becoming a CPA, my uncle is a CPA, as is my cousin. I was offered a job a Deloitte and Touche in 08 but decided to **** around and do other things.

What about you?

At the risk of taking you seriously, what are you trying to contribute to this discussion? Because ilcd has been talking about not reporting winnings as income, and you're here talking about what is a felony and what isn't like you think what ilcd is suggesting is not committing a felony.

Im educating an uneducated population

dont file tax return= illegal and usually charged as tax fraud. Think Al Capone

file tax return but dont pay balance= not criminally illegal (AFAIK) but all of your assets are subject to seizure

file tax return and lie about income (ILCD way)= big mistake and if caught you will likely just have to amend your taxes and get hit with hella fees. Worst case you go to jail and ****

file tax return and keep everything kosher= think Phil Hellmuth. Now you can use poker as income and get loans and **** IRL and further build wealth. Sure youre paying alot, but there are upsides. Also Ikestoys wont hate you

if you play professionally you should 100% file your taxes

This is all correct.

Option 4 is clearly only sensible option.

Misunderstanding avoided if this is your first post in the subject, rather than your 3rd. <shrug>

A lot of lenders ask for 2 years of tax return to evaluate risk, but we're talking about mostly small business loans.

As a professional poker player, you will probably have to show a lot more than 2 year tax return to get a decent loan. I am guessing 3-4 years of tax return and 6 - 12 months bank statements and other asset statements.

This scenario is more than likely a case-by-case situation determined by underwriter(s).

Don't worry. But do pay your taxes.

Your odds of being audited are quite low unless you have a complex return, lots of income, or you do something stupid like file a return without claiming a source of income that was disclosed by someone else to the government (I.e. you didn't put a 1099 on your return.)

And they aren't likely to go to town on you if you can prove you've been reasonably honest. Like, they aren't in the business of making your life hell if you aren't doing anything crazy.

This is a good post. One thing to add about option 2: they are rather aggressive about getting paid, and tax liability is generally not wiped out in a personal bankruptcy. Getting way in the hole to the government is a terrible idea.

Also having other sources of credit you pay off regularly (like a credit card or a car loan) will help show your dependability and help your credit rating.

it has a ten year statute of limitations. the IRS can petition at the ten year mark to have it extended to 20 years.

Thankfully for a family member of mine who owed 100k+, they didnt

Lol at paying taxes at 1/2. Between rake, topping, expenses, and taxes it will hardly be beatable.

"Hardly" does not imply < 0. You still owe taxes. Playing poker does not magically make you immune from your legal obligation to pay.

True, I don't advise against it. But skim a little off the top for yourself ...

Another reason to file the truth - the statute of limitations is different for failure to file or for tax fraud (hint: none)

Hey fellows, I had an interesting situation come up last night.

I was seated directly to the left of a massive fish who had $1600+ on the table in a 1/2 game. One seat over from him was a maniac who was in the game for $1200-$2000. He had about $800 on the table at the time. Many other players were sitting on $500-$1000.

I convinced everyone to make it a table stakes game and emptied my wallet plus secured a $500 loan from someone else to put $1400 on the table. My bankroll is currently $7100. So, I was risking just under 20% of my roll. I felt pretty comfortable as I had a perfect seat and quite a bit of experience playing extremely deep whereas I can almost guarantee the other players had little to no experience playing deep and the two to my right were especially prone to multiple buy in mistakes. I felt good, with no signs of tilt or impatience on the night. Is it inadvisable to put that much of my roll on the table for what I deemed to be a golden opportunity?

You've got to give us more than that, like do you have other income?

In a vacuum that's too aggressive for my blood. I'd rather you sit down with $500-$700 there.

Bank roll is completely separate from life roll. I can take the 29% hit if disaster strikes.

That's about as good a spot as you can ask for when putting a large % of your roll at stake. Especially given all the variables here, position, experience playing deep, good mindset, separate BR/liferoll.

how'd it go?

Lost a little bit. I was completely card dead for the entire session. I was there for 5 hours and never hit a pair. Set mined once and missed. I think I played 5 hands in 4.5 hrs. Frustrating when you see hundreds changing hands on 2nd pair vs. 3rd pair, but nitting it up was the way to go in that spot.