blonde poker forum

Couple of questions,

1)when you win at poker it is tax free, agreed? because of the buy in structure(is that right i dunno for sure?)

 2)so if your a professional poker player do you effectively have to keep a record of all your buy ins? which would effectively be your tax contributions,hence enabling you to claim tax relief on it?

3)and does that mean then that apart from the buy in fees you don't have to pay tax?????

In the UK you don't pay tax on gambling winnings (poker or otherwise).

You can't therefore claim any expenses.

I'm sure others who know more about it will explain it in more detail.

agreed but your buy in fee isn't poker winnings it's just that a fee, something you have to pay for regardless if you win or lose therfore that is your expenses which you should be entiltled to get relief on it along with the petrol/running costs of cars etc maybe i've missed something but can you see where i'm coming from?

Pioker winnings are not taxable, thus you cannot get relief on a non-taxable item. We can't have it both ways!

Poker winnings will NEVER be taxed, it's simply unenforceable. If winnings were to be taxed, losses would have to be offset - it's just unworkable.

I'd be more worried about Casinos "taxing" Tourney winnings, via deductions for Leagues, Dealers pools, etc. It's gonna happen unless we are vigilant.

Correct Tony

You would run into so so many problems as people will try to claim "losses" and offset against regular income.

The problem the Revenue would then have is to decide weather the poker was infact a business or a hobby.

how can the americans get away with taxing it without paying all the losers then?

Because their law is different.


In the uk individual gambling is not a trade, profession or vocation determined in a court case many years ago and gambling profits in general are not taxed.  In the us they only allow you to register as having a profession of gambling if you meet certain criteria and also all gambling profit is taxable. 

Delete this entire thread immediately!!!!  If Gordan Brown catches wind of this idea a small hurdle like taxing the winnings being completely unworkable will not stop him from trying to squeeze some money out somehow.

see the government could change the UK law after all thats why they are there so that gaming wins are taxable but you cant claim on loses

if i remember right it wasnt long ago that they removed the 10%tax on all bet

dont think people were able to claim back there loses then

no reason why they CAN'T put a 25% tax on all bets

apart from pissing off some of there backers

but they did that when theyput a tax on online gaming and sportsbetting firms when there backers thought

the UK was going to become the new gibralter

The point is that if it was a levy or duty it would only apply in the uk and for example completely kill off the casino and onshore bookmaking industry leading to job losses and loss of uk tax. If they changed the law to include gambling as a trade profession or vocation, then losses could be offset. 

But i am not talking about the WINNINGS i'm talking about your buy in fees which aren't winnings.
e.g say you play 100 tournaments a year with a buy in of £100 your layout will be £10,000 regardless if u win or lose thus making it expenses along with petrol food and hotels??
So do you professionals not pay tax then???

The expenses are related to Poker (which is not taxed) so therefore the expenses are not tax deductable.

The Revenue would run into the same problems they had a few years back with letting people "claim" for using their own car for business purposes on a profit and loss basis (Sec 419 claim). As you can imagine, people took the piss (me included :))

The costs involved for the Revenue to "police" these claims were huge.

Hense it was stopped and replaced by a flat rate mileage allowance.

The problem I have is that as Dec's dad is an online poker pro, the poker rooms won't release me information due to Data Protection and cannot get 1p out of him until he either comes clean about his earnings so CSA will give me money or he gets a normal job

So in some ways I wish it was taxable so he has to pay up!

I think the only tax which could apply would be if the government decided that tournament entry fees were VATable.

"I'd like to enter tonight's tournament please"

"That'll be £110 please sir. Or £105 if you pay by cash."

ahhh the fabulous CSA look out for another thread i'll post about them just had anothe rletter from them arrggggggggg

They removed the betting tax, after reducing it to 9%, but put a 15% levy on to bookies profits. The govt and the bookies were happy as turnover increased 4 fold.
Made gambling far easier too, with the tax in place, odds on shots weren't worth touching.

so do poker pro's pay tax then??

No. Poker is not taxed in this country.

No we are all officially retired,I retired at 26, lol.

someone gave a link for this not long ago when asked the same question,the link gave a lot of court cases of why poker is not taxed, so just trying to stop people getting stung in a bet over this, but strictly speaking i think it went on to say if you orginise a poker tournament in your own home and you happen to play in this tournament and win,that poker win is taxed because it is classed as running a buisness, anyone who orginises a poker event is supposed to pay taxes on winnings i think,i wonder if 1 person has declared since law was introduced,lol ,

Yes, but not on winnings from playing poker or gambling. Any other work they do (writing, TV work if paid, etc.) should be taxable, as is any interest they earn on their winnings.

I think it is better to describe ones occupation as "gentleman".

ok so if your a pro poker player you dont have to pay income tax, but what about national insurance for services like the nhs?

Just make sure when you go to the States you get an ITIN number sorted

I cash bubbled in a sattelite at the Borgata a couple of years ago for $5000 but only got $3700 or so cos they took the rest of it for their tax, the bastards. Never did manage to claim that back. What pissed me off was I lost money while I was there despite winning that $5k, so why should I get taxed for winnings when in reality there were none!!!!

Peoples access to the NHS isnt based on NIC payments. Only think poker pros are missing out on are State Pension and State Second Pension (used to be known as SERPS). Hopefully most pros are investing some of their earnings in property, shares, savings accounts or businesses?

You can get an ITIN after coming back to UK and pretty sure 6 year time limit on claiiming back witheld tax. I had to do this on a much smaller win At caesars Palace but got my $ back about a year later

But money from shares or interest from savings accounts would be taxable Simon, yes?

Although I can't really see some pro winning an EPT and then writing to the tax man to sat that his savings is earning x% interest.

Tax on savings are deducted at source. Or you could try ISAs if you have such an aversion to paying tax

Lol, I don't have an aversion, (Well, no more than the avarage Joe) I just want to understand it and I know that tax was your thing.

I think we all havew an aversion, especially the way they spend it :)

What do pro's do when they win? Just pay off (some of) their debts and stuff the rest under the mattress?