Hello,

Does anyone know whether Global Poker/VGW is considered to be run from Australia (is there a main headquarters address?) or out of the United States address which I have found listed as VGW, 548 MARKET ST #73140, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104.

This would have an affect on filing a form such as the FBAR.

FBARs for poker accounts havent been necessary in 5+ years

I am not a tax professional or a lawyer or anything, but I'm pretty sure there are a number of such professionals who would disagree with that statement.

That's not the tax advice I've gotten over the past 5 years.

What are you guys providing as proof of income from global? Cashout history??

I'm not providing any "proof" unless I'm audited etc. I track my sessions on an Excel sheet as my proof along with my cashout history yes. Not sure what else we realistically can provide the IRS if they ask for backup, but from my knowledge this should be sufficient. Also not a tax professional.

You should check out the tax sticky in the poker legislation forum. Deposits/cashouts are completely irrelevant in terms of U.S. taxes. Each session you play is the taxable event.

In terms of record keeping for online poker, poker databases with the hand history files to back them up are the gold standard. Without this option on Global, you're going to want an excel file tracking your sessions with start time, end time, games played, beginning account balance, ending account balance. Then you'll want screenshots for each session with your starting and ending balance and also capturing the time on your computer as proof. This is for cash games. Each tournament/sit and go is its own unique taxable session.

Of course, more record keeping can't hurt (as long as it ties out to your session records) so feel free to retain proof of your deposits/cashouts, but they aren't what is used for calculating your taxable income.

I am not a tax professional but this is my interpretation of the tax sticky.

Keep in mind as well, that when you play on Global you are not gambling with USD. Those laws are using that as an assumption. You instead gamble with $weeps Cash, which have no USD value.

Where it does have value is once the transaction hits your Paypal account. Now you have income, and I can see that taxes will need to be paid.

Keep in mind, I am also not a tax attorney or tax professional.

Do you know if Global offers such a thing? Way back, I got PokerStars to retroactively send me my history in a spreadsheet for the entire taxable year. I usually just look at my cashouts and bank statements and cobble together the most accurate number I can. Haven't been audited yet! (famous last words)

I'm sure that some people get away with not paying their full tax share; I always feel like such a square for trying to pay the full amount.

You're also supposed to do some kind of thing where you file quarterly estimates. I've definitely been too lazy for that.

I just filed taxes for this past year. I added up my cash out amounts and took that information with me. With post-grad school tax credits along with what little taxes I paid in from the job I worked before global opened up, I still got money back.

Hopefully, if we all pay taxes on our winnings, global will not be shut down anytime soon.

I don't think any of that applies. Since it is legally considered a sweepstakes, you would pay your taxes based on winnings, much like if you won the lottery. You would enter the winnings in the 'Other Income' column.

Not a tax accountant/attorney but asked last winter when I first started playing and that's basically what I was told.

I get what you're saying, but I highly doubt the IRS would look at it this way, especially since for non-professional gamblers this method would highly reduce taxable income (and for pros it wouldn't matter anyway since they can net sessions).

They'd probably be like "oh so you can withdraw this stuff for cash any time? yeah that's cash buddy" in an audit. Only way to know for sure would be to get audited but I wouldn't like your chances.

I'm also not a tax professional.

Okay, maybe an example would help and btw, this is what I would say were I being audited.

They come and audit me and find that at the time I had gotten both the Park Place and Boardwalk pieces for the Monopoly game at McDonalds. I haven't turned it in yet, but I can (and likely will) in the future. Does the IRS then say, "Well that counts as $1,000,000 in income, we get to tax that" Nope. They say, "When you turn in those game pieces, and get that $1,000,000 in income, you had better pay your taxes on it"

So then the "cash" that I have on Global is exactly that. Game pieces I haven't redeemed yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_receipt

Once the gain is realized, you pay the taxes. Sell stock and leave the money in the account, you're still paying the tax on the profit.

Oops, redundant to above

I think that the only way to get the IRS to take this view would be to battle them in court, which obviously wouldn't be worth the cost versus just paying the few extra grand you would owe in taxes. And even then I think you wouldn't be a favorite in court, maybe 50/50 at best.

Yeah Splayaa is definitely wrong about that, that's PokerTax 101. When I was but a naive young kid, coming up on Apr 15th one year, I kept a massive amount of money in PokerStars in the hopes of not having to pay taxes on it for that calendar year, and I was quickly notified that's not how it works.

Uncle Sam gonna get his.

I am totally could be wrong on this, again not a tax professional. But keep in mind, pokerstars and other poker sites, you are depositing USD and they hold those funds as USD. That is not what is happening with Global. You buy Gold Coins, just like you do in any other online game. The $weeps Cash are the bonus of the Sweepstakes model. You can write a letter, like any other sweepstakes is required to do, and get free $weeps Cash. Good luck doing that with 888 or ACR.

The IRS isn't going to care about the Gold Coins, they don't care about my donuts in Simpson's Tapped Out, and the $weeps Cash aren't USD, so I don't see what they can tax.

Then I play a sweepstakes, and I win. When does the IRS care about those winnings? When I get them, and not before. So yes $weeps Cash are POTENTIAL sweepstakes earnings, but they are only POTENTIAL. The become real earnings when they are converted to USD and placed into my PayPal.

Solid link, I will have to re-read it for sure.

https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/i...rize-winnings/

This appears to be a pretty good explanaition of how to handle sweepstakes winnings, I am still trying to track down a good IRS page. Its almost like HR Block understands search engines and the IRS doesn't.

With that said, I think the root of the question here is, are the funds on Global considered sweepstakes or is it deposit in an account poker. I am filing my taxes as the former. Each person should make their own decision on this, and if unclear consult a tax professional.

You may want to consult a tax professional even if you are clear, because you may be clearly wrong.

QL

Reading through it again, and boy is it fun!

What I can see here is that if I have a cash payment, or something else pending, like a prize I have won, I am not allowed to leave it in some other account and claim "That isn't income"

But this still makes an underlying assumption that the $weeps Cash on Global are equivalent to USD. I get that the line is fuzzy, but it still seems to be there. Back to the McDonald's example. If I never turn in those pieces, I never receive the income. It doesn't matter if I could have potentially gotten a million dollars or not from it, I didn't turn it in, I don't get the money. If I never hit withdraw on the Global page, it isn't ever turned into USD.

Where this doctrine would for sure apply (again, in my opinion) is if I process $weeps Cash into my PayPal on Dec 31, and then claim on my taxes, "Paypal hadn't released the funds to me yet, so therefore it isn't income" Because what PayPal holds for me is USD that I can spend like USD.

Still fill free to point out flaws in my logic, my goal here is to understand it better.

My argument isn't that what you're saying is wrong. My argument is that the IRS would take a "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck" approach since it is in their best interest to do so.

You can make all these points to the IRS, and they'd probably just say hey cool story bro, pay up or appeal us in court. At which point you lose, because going to court is not feasible due to the astronomical legal cost, even if you somehow knew that you would have a 100% chance of winning in court.