Tax

The_Game

Hi all.
I am thinking to report my 2013 winning as income.

Anyone has done this before?

What's the advantage and disadvantage of report gambling money as income?

Can we write off session fee, rakes?

BlondeFish

Unless you are seriously thinking of "throwing everything away and going pro" like our resident professional couch mover, the short answer is NO. Contact a tax accountant that has at least one professional poker client, or phone me.

The_Game wrote: »

Hi all.
I am thinking to report my 2013 winning as income.

Anyone has done this before?

What's the advantage and disadvantage of report gambling money as income?

Can we write off session fee, rakes?

westside8

Contact an actual accountant, any answers you will get here is not coming from someone with professional expertise

pkrfce9

cray cray

The_Game

thank you all.
Buddy I will get in touch with you.

bluesky

Dont do it but keep records like you would.

Note: Not a tax pro

GTA Poker

Why

Wetts1012

GTA Poker wrote: »

Why

Exactly, there are precisely 0 benefits, unless you took an absolute shit kicking and plan to write a bunch of stuff off.

Prob not SMRT.

JimmyHo

there are a few recent Canadian tax court cases of 'professional' poker players trying to write-off losses. They were all unsuccessful and disallowed by CRA. As noted, there is no benefit to reporting poker income on your personal tax return as when you do incur any losses in future years, they will more than likely be disallowed.

The only rationale to do this is you expect your write-offs to exceed your profits, so you end up with a net deduction overall. Otherwise, why would you bother?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/tax-judge-calls-toronto-poker-players-bet/article4261851/

philliivey

LOL, It's not only a no it's a HELL NO. IMO.:)

JimmyHo

The_Game wrote: »

Can we write off session fee, rakes?

Not sure how you would prove these under audit? I know one player at Woodbine that travels daily from Niagara Falls to play there so he can prove that poker is his main source of income. In the case of Woodbine, you can go online and for a nominal fee get a report of your monthly earnings (or losses) from playing electronic poker. This would be the only casino that could provide you with this. Not sure if a personal log would be accepted by CRA?

RAM_Eh

pokerJAH wrote: »

there are a few recent Canadian tax court cases of 'professional' poker players trying to write-off losses. They were all unsuccessful and disallowed by CRA. As noted, there is no benefit to reporting poker income on your personal tax return as when you do incur any losses in future years, they will more than likely be disallowed.

The only rationale to do this is you expect your write-offs to exceed your profits, so you end up with a net deduction overall. Otherwise, why would you bother?

Tax judge calls Toronto poker player's bet - The Globe and Mail

So my take on the article is if your a winning player your a pro cause you pay tax...if you loose the next year your an amateur according to CCRA. Maybe next year you can be a pro again.

bluesky

My understanding is the same as Rams' sounds like a shit deal

kwsteve

I asked a CRA rep about this. Unless your primary source of income is from poker, you don't have to declare winnings. It is treated as lottery winnings. Obviously you cannot write off losses and expenses either.

ReefAquarium

My accountant is a CA.

I asked him this question.

He said unless you're a professional poker player...

No tax.

We live in the best country in the world.

Thank Brock and Tecumseh for kicking the Americans butts in 1812.

I'm sure they did it to keep poker tax free!

Monoxide

Even if you are a pro poker player or make tons of side money from poker... why ever?

I guess I like my money lol