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Poker and the taxman - serious question

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  • nirvana29nirvana29 Member Posts: 489
    edited October 2009
    surely the organisations behind the gaming, like sky, ladbrokes, bet365 etc should be taking care on the tax issues, and dude, come on, ssshhhhhhhhh!
  • NICONNICON Member Posts: 68
    edited October 2009
    There was a law on Gambling where you had to pay tax and this was abolished about 10 years ago. You could place a bet and decide if you wanted to pay tax on your bet or on your winnings i think?. Poker is a game of chance by classification thus the law that a card room actually have to have a Casino Licence (the most ridiculous law i've ever heard of considering no player actually plays against the house). This law in my opinion is actually holding back live grass roots poker as if no casino licence was required you would see an upshot of card rooms all around the country and a new infulx of people with the poker bug into the card playing community.

    Some pro's may be required to pay tax as they are sponsered (Which may be calssed as employed) by sites who pay their buy-ins and pay them for public appearances, image rights etc. If these payments are classified as an earning by the inland revenue (and i can't see why they wouldn't be when things such as your company car go toward your tax allowance / payments) then they may be taxable and considering the monetary value of these things it would not be hard to run up a tax bill capable of bankrupting you if you happened not to declare them lol

    I'm no tax expert (or poker pro for that matter) but I don't think the government are planning on re-introducing gambling tax as they are trying to make the UK a gambling friendly country so they can earn their tax from the gamblimg companies. I'm also caught between a rock and a hard place on the classification of poker as a game of chance, i think most of us would dissagree that poker is a game of chance in the same way that roulette or craps is but consider this..........

    If it's not a game of chance then it's a game of skill................... if it's a game of skill then winnings are taxable :)
  • JAMIEPJAMIEP Member Posts: 218
    edited October 2009
    I really believe we will be ok for a long time in this country.I also read on another poker forum that players like durrr who win millions online and lose millions can claim back losses i don't know how it's done over there must be hard esp when you consider cash games etc.
  • chrisbhoychrisbhoy Member Posts: 302
    edited October 2009
    mickyblue, i'm an accountan, fr exra cash i can be dodgy too!
    just remember pensions are there to put all your money in to keep the bg boys away from i lol
  • NICONNICON Member Posts: 68
    edited October 2009
    In Response to Re: Poker and the taxman - serious question:
    mickyblue, i'm an accountan, fr exra cash i can be dodgy too! just remember pensions are there to put all your money in to keep the bg boys away from i lol
    Posted by chrisbhoy
    As an accountant Chris would it be right that a pro may have their buy-ins and appearance fees etc as a taxable income if they are coming from a site that sponsers them or is sponsership non-taxable?
  • MereNoviceMereNovice Member Posts: 4,364
    edited October 2009
    In Response to Re: Poker and the taxman - serious question:
    In Response to Re: Poker and the taxman - serious question : As an accountant Chris would it be right that a pro may have their buy-ins and appearance fees etc as a taxable income if they are coming from a site that sponsers them or is sponsership non-taxable?
    Posted by NICON
    I'd be interested to know this too.
    If it is the case that it is taxable, how does this affect Badbeat (and other sites) "traders" who are staked to play and share the profits? They are technically not gambling - not with their own money, anyway.
  • chrisbhoychrisbhoy Member Posts: 302
    edited October 2009

    sorry people I am a management accountant not a finance accountant therefor any answer I give would be a guess.( I dont deal with the tax side of companies) But Sponsorship deals I would say are taxable income. In UK income from gamblin is not taxable as previously pointed out.
    Ask me about bugets and forcasts and we'd be here all day with my answers lol

  • paparonpaparon Member Posts: 186
    edited October 2009
    if your thinking about this bluster then you must be doing allright at the tables
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