Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin J
That's pretty insulting lawdude. Are you insinuating that those of us who play for a living lack the integrity to pay our income taxes? Or that we're dumb enough to run tens of thousands through our bank accounts hoping not to get caught?
This is a ridiculous reaction.
I mean, I can tell stories of poker players who basically proposed strategies of tax evasion to me. (I always tell them that I'm don't practice tax law and that the government has ways of catching people who don't pay.) I can tell you about people I know who were actually busted for tax evasion. And I can tell you about people who flat out told me they weren't paying their taxes.
I think I posted this before, but when I won a jackpot several years ago, a couple of players told me explicitly that I should put it in the players bank and take it out a little at a time so I could claim I lost it back on my taxes. (I took a check, reported the jackpot, and paid the taxes.)
And I should add, by the way, that part of this is the government's fault. They make it hard to pay taxes. Most people have to do a complicated thing with itemized deductions to report poker income properly, and some states don't even allow deductions of losing sessions at all, which is nuts.
But nonetheless, if you want to pretend that poker players all pay their taxes, I have some swampland to sell you. I don't have hard data, but compliance rates for poker players are going to be far lower than for workers who receive a W-2.