I recently took down the stars 30k guaranteed for a nice sum. I plan on cashing out 80% of my winnings, leaving me with a little more than a $1k to continue playing recreational poker.

My question here is does this income have to be reported to the IRS? If so whats the safest, most legal way to go about it? I will be cashing out roughly $5k.

I've never won this much and it sure felt AWESOME to finally take down one of these large MTT (beat of field of 6,200!!)!! Its got me totally motivated to kick more ass online. If I win another one soon (or have a nice cash) I may consider working half as much as I do now to try and produce a more substantial income playing poker. As soon as the tourney got down to about 20 players and I was in the top five, I knew HANDS DOWN that I was the best player left in the tournament (except for a player by the name of lovedungy). If i was going to lose this thing, it was going to be because i made a huge mistake, nothing more nothing less (or a ridiculous cooler*). I'm pretty excited and can't wait to get in some extra volume in the hopes of being able to have these types of cashes more frequently. If not, and I lose most of my remaining BR, I can at least say that I tried and TOOK A SHOT!!

I cannot advise you on taxes and the like as I'm not from America.

With regards to keeping playing, you should keep an amount of money on stars that is equal to 100-200 times the buyin amounts you wish to play. I'm assuming you are talking about the Daily 30k which is an $11 buyin. If you were playing mainly $11 tournaments then you should keep 1k - 2k on stars as your poker bankroll.

small cashouts obv to duck irs fees

oh and congrats on the win. I remember winning my first big large field tourney which was the $5 rebuy for a little under 8k. I had to stay up all night to finish the tourney (being from England, the tourney started at 11pm at night) but it was so worth it.

I could have written this post a year ago. Only difference is, I didn't withdraw after my big score.

A year later I'm depressed, jaded, disillusioned,whatever you want to call it... those thousands of dollars are long gone to bad beats, suckouts, misreads, misplays and just standard poker luck... I thought I was doing it right and 2009 would be "my year". Wrong.

Hope your bright future works out better than mine has.

You seem to understand tournaments, variance and your edge, I suggest you go pro and play full HS schedule

But hey, congrats to your score

ya enough about you tho

congrats OP.

Grats on score. Probably keep more online for your account if you wish to not have to make another deposit. If you're MTT player you'll burn through cash quite quickly as you await another big score.

gj!

[QUOTE=Bigl00z3r;16740045]My question here is does this income have to be reported to the IRS? If so whats the safest, most legal way to go about it? I will be cashing out roughly $5k.QUOTE]

Technically any winnings you have, whether cashed out or not, are legally required to be reported as income.

[QUOTE=Rick Diesel;16742088] key word being technically

Firstly, congrats on the win. Secondly, dont listen to the idiots who imply that you dont need to pay taxes.

Read the Legislation forum, it's full of tax-related posts. In short, your winnings are income. All income is taxable. The best and safest way is to contact a professional and pay a fee for their services.

Accountant ITT...stop soliciting!

How would the IRS know that you won????

The same way Santa knows where you live

Damn that fat old man!!!

you dont have to report the money if you withdraw the money in increments that dont raise flags

wats the max non flag raising amount?

lol, yes you do.

I would use the search feature on these forums as this subject has been discussed ad nauseam.

"Short-Sweet Answer" = Yes, you have to pay taxes on your poker winnings.

PM me if you want some help locating more in-depth information.

chainsaw doesn't even hate this structure as much as the irs does.