Is a professional gambler a "sole proprietorship"? - Poker Legislation

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Is a professional gambler a "sole proprietorship"?

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02-06-2011 , 03:23 AM

Mastodon

centurion

Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 131

I recently opened up an sep-ira account and a taxable investment account with Vanguard and they want me to fill out a form W-9. On the form it asks for "Type of taxpayer" and two of the options are "Individual" and "Sole proprietorship". I'm not sure which of the two to check. I file taxes as a professional gambler and all of my income is from poker.

I talked to one of their service reps on the phone and he thought i should select "Individual" because i use my social security number as my taxpayer id. He definitely wasn't sure about it though.

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02-06-2011 , 07:28 AM

PokerXanadu

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 10,583

The official W-9 form from the IRS has one combined option for "Individual/Sole Proprietor". There is no difference to the IRS for tax identification purposes. The Form W-9 is just the official method used to give Vanguard your Taxpayer Identification Number. If you check off "Individual", you give them your Social Security Number; if you check off "Sole Proprietor", you give them either your Employer ID Number (if you have one) or your SSN, at your option.

Since the SEP-IRA is a business-based retirement account and you are filing as a pro, I'd go with Sole Proprietor and use your Social Security Number.

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