A Taxing Time for Poker Winnings

Filed in archive Poker on September 7, 2005

It had to happen sooner or later. The more popular poker becomes, the more people want to make money on it - and the US government is no different.

In the US, the taxpayer has to declare their gambling winnings or losses on their tax return, depending on minimums won - and its not as easy as simply declaring your net profit. But until now, its been fairly difficult for the IRS to track gambling income.

Now that poker is becoming more mainstream, the IRS want to look at a way of changing that - usually, for horses, casinos and bingo, if the player has a big win, the payer has to withold 25-28% of the winnings and would send the player a specific form (W-2G) - its unlikely that would happen in poker - so the IRS are starting to look at witholding taxes in poker tournaments

Of course, in countries like the UK, gambling winnings (prize money, competitions etc) are tax-free - thats got to be the best solution!

Article: Feds call for brand-new deal on all those poker winnings