Back when neteller money got siezed, and eventually we were all paid out, they did not report it to the irs nor send w2's and 1099's out. Quit with all the fear mongering already.

2 things.

1) The following is from your link. Where does it say it applies to remission payments?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Payments Subject to Backup Withholding

Rents, non-employee compensation for services, royalties, reportable gross proceeds paid to attorneys, and other fixed or determinable gains, profits, or income payments that are reportable on Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income.

Backup withholding does not apply to wages or pension payments.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the instructions for 1099-MISC is the following................

Also include amounts paid to a winner of a sweepstakes not involving a wager. If a wager is made, report the winnings on Form W-2G, Certain Gambling Winnings.

So it seems that 1099-MISC has nothing to do with us.

2) Is a remission payment income? If so is it gamblin income?


It is like a dog chasing it's tale. Gives us something to do but accomplishes nothing although it does keep us occupied. Hopefully we will know something "soon".

Time to play some poker now!

I think i may have made one actual deposit to FT when i first opened my account( to verify the account) i didn't like FT from the start BUT i saw an opportunity to earn through affiliation.
I referred a lot of players through Rake Update and had a steady stream coming in from them (obviously until THEY went arse up). Everything i earned at RU i had transferred to my FT account from whence i either transfers or took checks.

How do you think balances from transfers into a full tilt account made through affiliate work ( RU) will be handled? ( for US based players).

neteller was not a gambling site, FTP is.

That is true. However, if the DOJ was really interested in nailing people for tax evasion or helping the IRS to catch people not reporting poker income, it would have been easy to mine the Neteller transaction histories and identify people who were very likely to have won money playing poker and then the IRS could have audited any of those people who hadn't reported gambling winnings. And while it is possible that they did something like that, I don't recall any rash of 2p2ers complaining about tax audits or getting arrested for tax evasion.

Yes that is very ture, the IRS could do that. problem is the balances could of come from other sources, it would be alot of work. It would be like seizeing VISA and shifting thru their transcations.
On the other hand, if you got the balance from a poker site, atleast you have a firm number. I'm not sure what limits the IRS would be interested in, say any balance above $5,000. Then its a simple step of checking the deposits/account history. I would imagine its all on some type of spread sheet.

The PLAYER's TAX RETURNS is who is to say, and if said player did not file/keep all the PROOF, then it could well be worth the effort for IRS to check out. The player could have to pay, even if he DID have the other losses, if he can't PROVE it properly at audit.

Remember this is not a court where "innocent till proven guilty" when you get an IRS audit. You have to PROVE every deduction, and in the right manner as per IRS's own rules, or otherwise you ARE "guilty".

But I applaud the OP, as majorly correct and a positive outlook. Only the really big accounts would have any realistic chance of getting audited.

Almost. Perhaps the best argument is that they insisted PokerStars pay balances for FTP's ROW players. FTP's ROW players were just as much victims of fraud as FTP's US players. What PokerStars paid its own player is irrelevant, since there was no fraud against Star's players. Where this argument might fall down is different laws covering US citizens, than in other countries. It is not clear to me why the DoJ didn't go with remission for all of FTP's players.

Yes. People who think the DoJ are going to be motivated because of fear of poker players are just wrong.

Income is not relative to this part of the rule
"Requirement for Payer To Secure a TIN

For all payees, you must make an initial solicitation for a TIN when the payee opens an account or when the transaction occurs. Use Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number, to request the taxpayer identification number."

I know our business sends out 1099's on every non corporate entity over $600 which is what our accountant and lawyers tell us to do regardless of that the payment is for

The remissions process is going to involve the hire of a third party to look at the transaction histories of American players. You don't think this info is going to be passed along to the IRS? I do. Is it allowed? I mean can governmental agencies just share citizen information like this or is there some kind of protocol? If not, shouldn't we assume the IRS will see everything we ever deposited and everything we ever cashed out? The reason this seems relevant, is that it will tell an incomplete picture for many players (live winnings/losses and other sites winnings/losses) but could lead to audits, right? If so, perhaps the PPA could form a legal team to defend poker players in audit situations?

An audit of a poker player who plays on many sites, stakes, get staked, plays live, etc etc could be extremely costly and time consuming even if the net result is that the player doesn't owe anything more. The transaction history the government is going to possibly give to the IRS could lead to some audits, even if Neteller did not, and it'd be great if the PPA defended players in this scenario.