"Professional Gamblers" Question

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Is anybody incorporated as a "professional gambler" for IRS purposes. All expenses and losses would be deductible. At one time the cost was $500.
Any info much appreciated.


BOL
 

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It costs more than $500. For all the filing (and you probably want a Nevada Corp. where it is legal to have gambling as a corporate activity), I spent $1500. That, and add another 2-3k per year for a tax lawyer.
 

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You do not have to be incorporated to declare your income as a professional gambler for IRS purposes. You just have to meet their ambiguous criteria for eligibility which largely has to do with consistency of profits and proportion of income. There is benefits and costs to declaring oneself a professional. The main benefits are that you can deduct certain expenses and you are less likely fall in the AGI phase-out range for the standard deduction, personal exemptions, and many tax credits. However, the major negative is that you expose yourself to the 15% self employment tax for social security and medicare. Whether or not declaring yourself a professional would be smart depends on your individual situation.
 

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Its not April 1st already is it. Lets kill this thread quick.

99% of the Gambling Population lose, Bookmakers win, all Tax officials, all over the World know this. So when you put in a Tax Form declaring your earnings were made from Gambling, a collective eyiiiiieyiiii goes across the office, lets see what this Guy's really doing.

The bit that really takes the biscuit is, as if anyone can afford to pay Taxes on winnings on a regular basis, even Bookmakers have to fiddle their returns because of that.
 

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Thanks For The Info...i Will Look Into The +'s And -'s In More Depth!
 

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Winbet--

Not sure that is the case at all.

If one makes money gambling, report it as gambling income.

Why misrepresent yourself with lies and cause yourself more trouble?

Thats why i declare my gambling winnings year in and year out and sleep well at night.
 

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hot:salsa said:
Thanks For The Info...i Will Look Into The +'s And -'s In More Depth!
Do a search on tax and taxes here at the RX.............this topic has been discussed in detail here over the months and years.
 

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I know guys that make 100k a year in biz and do not pay one dime in taxes

They have 2 SS#'s
 

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jjgold said:
I know guys that make 100k a year in biz and do not pay one dime in taxes

They have 2 SS#'s
Now thats a novel idea............NOT!
 

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If I win money gambling do I have to pay tax on it?
</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD>

Many people wonder how gambling activities are treated for tax purposes. Taxpayers often run into tax difficulties in this area. This is because gambling winnings are fully taxable, while gambling losses aren't simply offset against the winnings. Briefly, your winnings must be reported on "other income" line 21 on the front page of your tax return. To measure your winnings on a particular wager, just use the net gain on the wager. For example, if a $20 bet at the race track turns into a $100 win, you have won just $80, not $100. If you lose $50 on a different race, however, you cannot simply offset this amount against your $80 win.

You must separately keep track of losses. They are deductible, but only as itemized deductions (on line 27 of Schedule A of your form 1040). Thus, if you take the standard deduction (i.e., don't itemize), you cannot deduct your gambling losses. On the other hand, if you do itemize, the gambling losses fall into the category of "Other miscellaneous deductions." These are fully deductible as itemized deductions and aren't subject to either the 2% of adjusted gross income (AGI) "floor," or the 3%/80% phase out of certain itemized deductions. (Some types of miscellaneous itemized deductions, such as investment expenses and unreimbursed employee expenses are only deductible to the extent they exceed, in total, 2% of AGI. And if a taxpayer's AGI exceeds a specified dollar amount, certain itemized deductions are reduced by the lesser of 3% of the excess of AGI over that dollar amount, or 80% of the otherwise allowable itemized deductions.) A second important limitation is that your gambling losses are only deductible up to the amount of your gambling winnings. That is, for tax purposes, you can use your losses to "wipe out" your gambling income but you can never show a gambling tax loss.

Be careful to keep good records of your losses during the year. Keep a diary in which you indicate the date, place, amount and type of loss as well as the names of any people who were with you. Save all documentation, such as losing tickets, checks or credit slips. You should also save any related "side" documentation, for example, if you have losses on a trip to Las Vegas, save the hotel bill and plane ticket, any receipts from cash machines in the casino, as well as your records on the gambling losses themselves. If you join a slot club, ask the casino if you can get a printout of the amount you bet. Since anyone can just pick up, e.g., an unlimited amount of losing tickets at a race track, the IRS may require more data and documentation to substantiate gambling loss deductions.


James W. Crawford, CPA

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Thanks for sharing Sherman.

The #1 piece of evidence that you as a gambler should be able to provide to the IRS is an accurate diary of your gambling records to document your deductions for gambling losses.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS POSTERS!
 

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i took some advice from the board this year, and filed the SCH A. so far so good.
hot:salsa said:
Is anybody incorporated as a "professional gambler" for IRS purposes. All expenses and losses would be deductible. At one time the cost was $500.
Any info much appreciated.


BOL
 

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jjgold said:
I know guys that make 100k a year in biz and do not pay one dime in taxes

They have 2 SS#'s
Those guys are cheats and liars. Not only are they cheating the Federal government, they are cheating all the honest taxpayers out there. Although the U.S.A. is not all it is cracked up to be with regards to freedom, if you are a citizen and enjoy al the rights and privileges of being a such, you owe it to your fellow countrymen to be honest with regards to your declaration of income and payment of taxes.
 

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