After taking a few weeks to read this entire thread, I have a question that doesn't seem to have been asked yet:

A previous poster stated that he claimed his poker winnings as income, but was later refunded because they deemed his winnings to be non-income.

Does anyone think it would be worthwhile to claim your winnings and hope they rule that you don't have to claim it so you can get away with not claiming in the future? Is this even possible?

This is assuming that you were considering claiming your winnings as income anyways.

Thanks

If you claim them as income odds are they will be considered income so it is very unlikely that you'd get the outcome you are hoping for.

Even if CRA rejects your attempt to claim winnings as income that does not mean they can't make you pay after. At best this would be a good case that you made an honest effort and would likely get penalties and interest waived but you would still have to pay your taxes.

Does anyone know why the Capital gains tax in Canada is sooooooo high compared to the USA(15%)?

Even if you are in the highest category you only pay 23.2%. If you make less than $80k you pay 17.6%. I don't see a big difference.

Anyone using Studiotax and can offer some advice on capital gains? Where do I input capital gains? Dividends are declared on their own T5 sheets, but capital gains are not? Is there a form separately for them corresponding to "RL Slips" (whatever that stands for). The forms in that have numbers and letters I would think correspond to something...

Thanks.

Add a Schedule 3 using the "Forms" icon at the top
or, easier,
Double-click the 0.00 on line 127 , T1Page2

Is there any way of avoiding paying CPP?

Incorporate and pay yourself dividends rather than a salary.

Ok thank you. And I work out what 50% of my capital gains were and declare that right?

Anyone here into bitcoins?

I've thought about incorporating but that makes very little sense tax wise, better off to get taxed on the personal level as capital tax gains.

This would be something that would only work for tax years right? I couldn't go back and do this for say the past 2 years?

Also would it be reasonable to not claim any poker income for lets say the first year or even two years of playing? It seems kind of unfair that if I would have lost money in my first year I would not be able to deduct loses but winnings are taxable.

lol

This makes no sense by itself and is even harder to understand when we consider that it was in response to a discussion of CPP

Yes. You can't retroactively incorporate.

You need to be more clear. You were a losing player who has become a winning player and you want to offset your current wins with past losses? Because poker can switch from a hobby to a business venture this is makes things complicated.

Also my response about incorporating is with respect to avoiding CPP and also getting a better tax treatment. When it comes to poker there are a few complications since most sites will not allow you to have an account as a corporation so setting this up properly is something you should go to a professional for.

Uh, no - the program will do that for you.
See lines 197 and 199.

Enter the full amounts.

I was never a losing player, what I was trying to say is I am a little unsure of when I would be considered to be a "pro" player. 2009 I played poker for maybe 3 months and made very little (10k maybe). In 2010 I just played poker with no other job and did much better at around 40-50k. My 2011 profits were around 60k.

Now back to my point

Basically what I am trying to say is 2010 being my first full year of playing it could have went either way really. Was I really a pro with only a few months of experience? Can I file for 2011 and just kinda forget about 2010 and if anything ever happens just claim I had gambling winnings in 2010 and not income.

I'm still not sure if I should be paying any taxes at all but I don't feel like waiting for the CRA to decide they want me to pay taxes 4-5 years down the road.

I wouldn't file for either year. Unless you are motivated by moral reasons there is no other reason to.

my reasons are wanting to buy a house in the next few years. As well as fear of interest+penalty.

I guess these issues are not as big of a concern as I think they are.

Paying taxes for the purpose of buying a house is not a good reason. Assuming you live in a city you can get a mortgage without income. It is a little harder and requires a larger down-payment but you'll easily have that bigger down-payment if you don't pay taxes and the difference in servicing costs is minimal.

Fear of consequences is a different story. I don't see it as a major concern but I am not going to advice someone of that because you could be that unlucky guy who CRA does go after. That is a personal decision and if peace of mind is worth 25%+ of your income to you then you should pay your taxes. It is a strange thing for me to see poker players that would have that risk evaluation -- when I was into poker the odds of having a gun pointed at you while still very low were nevertheless magnitudes higher than the odds of CRA ever bothering a non-superstar poker player.

so if I decided not to claim any of it should I just file taxes with zero income so I can get use of TFSA room? Follow up question...Would putting money into a TFSA increase the chances of the CRA asking questions?

Also, how much will getting a mortgage be affected by if the house is in the city or not? Just because I am looking to buy outside of the city. I guess I would just need a larger down payment.

That was my last question, Thanks for your help.

TFSA is based on residency so you would have it regardless. The easiest way to establish residency is to file taxes.

I don't know enough about how TFSA get reported. There was some discussion of it earlier by someone who did know. You'd have to search back to find it. Again this is just a personal position but I have no concerns using the TFSA without declaring income.

I have seen modest properties down on the outskirts of Ottawa but it really depends. Basically it comes down to if the lender thinks the property can be sold if need be -- so outside of Toronto would be fine but outside of Blind River would be less likely.

Tax question not really poker tax question

When declaring capital gains from U.S. stocks, if you bought and sold the stock in US funds and didn't convert that to CDN, do you still convert the price paid for US stocks to CDN that day you bought it, and convert the price you sold the stock to CDN dollars on that day? Does that make sense?

Thanks.

Yes. http://www.taxwiki.ca/Jalal+Rezvankh...20022104+(TCC)

Quick question

If I go ahead and declare my online poker winnings, would it make sense for me to deduct my live losses and expenses such as gas? I kept a speadsheet for the entire year, but will it be considered enough proof, because if you look at my bank account it looks like there are only random occasional cash withdrawals.

Of course you claim your losses. If CRA disallows them later then they disallow them but you rightfully should claims them.

Did you play at a casino or underground? If at a casino there is a good possibility that they have some record of your playing there.

Indian reserve, so no records sadly.

I am a second year university student in BC. In 2011 I made around 35k from online poker, playing around 100k hands of cash. In 2012, I have made around 35k in 100k hands of cash.

I don't consider myself a professional since I go to school and I had and will have a summer job this year.

I have already filed my tax return for 2011 without claiming my poker winnings. Just two T4's and a T2202A.

Should I be claiming winnings?