Quote:
Originally Posted by t_roy
Wasn't that back when we thought the money in our accounts was backed up by actual cash?
Yeah, for sure, there are definitely arguments that, looking back, constructive receipt did not apply in the case of Full Tilt Poker, particularly after the amendments to the charges last week. But it doesn't seem clean and simple.
Certainly memberly's statement that "Also you
would not claim any winnings until you have collected the money in your possession" was not right -- we had no idea of this insolvency for our 2010 taxes, and it would have been 100% wrong to have elected some sort of disallowed cash method of accounting. Now, if Full Tilt Poker reopened as Full Tilt Ponzi Poker and made its accounting practices clear, and we decided to play there going forward, then I think there would be a pretty sound basis for some sort of cash-based accounting. But an entity like this would be a brand new thing in the world of gambling taxes, and might require some sort of official guidance or approval by the IRS or something, and I have no idea how that process would work.
I would agree that, logically, if authorities can pinpoint the date at which Full Tilt Poker began running its accounting shortfall, all activity after then should have been counted through some sort of cash accounting method due to lack of constructed receipt.
The issues would be that logic doesn't always coincide with IRS policy, and even if it does, retroactively changing accounting methods, especially going back into having to amend 2010 taxes, is at best a huge mess and at worst somehow not at all possible.