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Message: [QUOTE="Crummy, post: 668873, member: 18201"] A couple of things.....First off....You do NOT have to pay taxes on any money that is in your poker accounts that you have NOT withdrawn. You could have 100 Million dollars in your Poker Stars account, none of it is taxable, until you withdrawl it. Secondly you have to pay taxes on all of your winnings, and you can also deduct all of your losses. Here is an example: [I]Let's say you are a serious recreational player and play five 4-hour sessions every week, two $15-30 tables at a time. Depending on how you count your sessions, this could be either 5 or 10 sessions per week (the IRS is not clear on the definition of a session, since online poker didn't exist when they wrote up the regulations). Let's say this is 250 sessions per year. Suppose you win 130 of them with an average profit of $1,000 (that's $130,000 in winning sessions) and lose 120 of them with an average loss of $1,000 (that's $120,000 in losing sessions). The good news is you have a $10,000 net win for the year. Congratulations. The bad news is, the $130,000 you must declare in gross income is going to cost you. First of all, while you can deduct the $120,000 losses, your other deductions will be limited.[/I] So yes you have to pay taxes on all of your winnings, even if you lose them. Yes your losses will take away from some of what you have to pay. This is what I do and would do if I were you. Say you win $10,000, and you withdraw that from your online account, IMMEDIATELY take out your taxes, record your winnings and keep that money you took out for your taxes in a safe or put in a seperate bank account, DO NOT SPEND THIS MONEY! DO NOT INCLUDE THIS MONEY INTO YOUR BANKROLL!!!!! You WILL have to pay this, now with that said, say you lose enough money that you do not have to pay taxes on your winnings, well you'll have that extra money to put back into your bankroll at the end of the year. As a business owner I stress the fact that you MUST pay your taxes, if the IRS audits you and finds out you won poker money and didn't report it.......well your screwed, you'll pay it back, plus some. Yes you can deduct other things as well. You can tell your accountant that you play poker professionaly online, with that said you can write off some of your house payment, electric, internet, ect.....for the fact that your "home office" is where you do your work. You can also deduct food you eat during that time, ect. [/QUOTE]

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