Tuesday, April 10, 2007

It's all fun and games till the taxman comes

Man, the government rake is terrible!

I haven't double checked my math yet, but it looks like I owe somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 percent taxes on my $51,000 in winnings from 2006. That's such a bad beat. In fact, it's the worst beat I've ever taken.

The government really screws gamblers in every way. The tax code is incomprehensible. The requirement of having to itemize losses as a deduction is ridiculous. What's more, all this money had been taxed many times before it reached my poker accounts, and now I'm paying a hefty price. I guess it's like a transaction fee for the fish to send their money to me.

What's even more annoying about this is that I'm giving all this money to a federal government that's try to prohibit me from participating in the activity that generated this revenue.

Dear federal government,

I won a fair amount of money from gambling in 2006. I would appreciate it if you would stop trying to inhibit legal activities that result in large payments to you.

Love,

Poker Gnome

6 comments:

Easycure said...

Here's where being a sucky player I have a huge advantage over you.

I don't win anything to tax!

Fuel55 said...

Nice letter - I laughed and laughed ...

jnphrly said...

hey, great site. been keeping me pretty entertained at work :) would you be interested in a possible link exchange? email me for the details
plblog.jen@gmail.com

Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...

That is pretty dumb when you think about it....

That said, I'd love to be in position as would most bloggers to owe taxes on 51 Large of net winnings from poker in one year. In one lifetime for me, for cyring out loud.

Great year man. Sorry about the tax hit though, that is a bad beat and a half.

kurokitty said...

Very nice. Sounds like all you need is 35 percent rakeback! LOL

Alan aka RecessRampage said...

Have you thought about setting it up as a "self employment" income? I'm not sure where the breakeven amount is because I'm not a tax guy but I know that at some point, it's more beneficial to report this as a self employment income (where you can net the income and expenses including any remotely poker related expenses like if you traveled to vegas, you can classify that as business exp). But you might need a tax expert to figure out which one is more beneficial. Just a thought. I'm thinking about posting something along those lines so maybe I'll look up some more info as well.