blonde poker forum

So I graduated from Uni recently and have been playing poker as my only source of income. I've withdrew several 4/5 figure amounts into my bank account in the last few months and what i'm wondering is how long before hmrc get suspicious and question where this money is coming from?

Should I have been keeping some sort of records so I can provide proof that the income is from gambling if/when they decide to ask questions?

rofl, wish that was a problem I had to worry about.

thin

Dw about it, they can't tax any of it. Just relax and rub it on your titties. But quietly.

In any investigation/questions, its all about you showing/proving where the money/Ferrari came from:

Transferring online you have an audit trail...no problem.
Cashing live you should remember you might have to prove where income has come from ,and its best to have some sort of receipt/proof/cheque record etc.

Id like to know how you think the state will know whats in your account?
Assuming you are not investigated by the tax office they will only know if you tell them, and as others have said you have no concerns as your income is not taxable.

UNDER THE BED

As long as your UKASH vouchers in are less than your bank transfers out you got no worries!

Spin it.

lol. UKASH is the devils work. I'm the only person that the little Asian shop keeper round the corner will take £50 notes off. Got a good mind to pass him a few dodgy ones to teach him a lesson.

Used to get all my winnings in £50's coz our lass can't spend em anywhere in Scunny :)

I had a conversation with keys about this .....the main problem you full time pro guys are gonna have is when the powers that be decide to start taxing poker winnings.

If its your only source of income then it will really hurt.

Spoke to a solicitor about this, they can't do anything currently as there's no tax legislation.


Won't be long before the tories get this done tbh, seems like a massive pinyata that just waiting to get whacked with a stick. It'll be terrible for the poker community obviously but I can't see them leaving what is essentially "free money" laying around.

Gambling winnings won't get taxed as they would have to give tax relief on losses so the net result would be worse for tax man so nothing will happen.

Correct. Instead, the providers of Live Poker get taxed, so it is already taxable, & the end user effectively must contribute.

Online, not so much, as most service providers to UK sites are based offshore, & so beyond the reach of legislation..

When they put betting tax on before, they didn't give me tax relief on my losses.  Other countries also seem happy to just tax winners. 

We should be happy we have a favourable regime for the likes of us and hope it continues.  I don't think we can assume it will always be like this though.

We all pay plenty of tax. 10% rake capped at £7?

I think a lot of venues have to pay 50% gross profits tax on that depending on square footage of gaming areas.

Unless they tax your winnings at source (i.e. at the time they are handed over by the casino) then you'd have to declare them in a self-assessment, which would also allow you to offset any expenses incurred. If you're a pro, then your books will include buy-ins and other costs, surely?

Also, they couldn't tax any cash winnings in this way (at source, that is), only tournament winnings.

imagine having to pay even 20% tax. I would think it takes a massive number of players from being profitable to losing.

Not really. You are assuming "a lot" of players are profitable, & whilst it is all relative, the vast majority are not.

Imagine a poker players self assessment, lol. It would cost the government more in VAT fraud than they'd ever get in receipts.

[ ] lot of tax.

I play mostly on line and my tax to profits ratio is absolutely minuscule.  The fact some if the sites/the occasional live venue may pay some tax doesn't really change this. 

Working outside poker most are taxed at 30% + when they include thrir own NI and before you include employer taxes etc. 

I think it is a lot of tax live. In Vegas where poker is taxable income rake is capped $4/$5. Over here it's $11. That is not because casinos are greedy it's simply due to restrictive tax on rake.

Not really, the casino could simply record your buy in and then deduct X% from any profit when you cash out.

What happens when you lose?  You can't only get taxed when you win.....you have to be able to deduct losses going forward or there would be no pro's.

That wasn't tax, it was duty, which is now paid by providers.  In a big casino, 50% of the rake goes to the govt, so professional players pay a lot of rake.  Some sort additional duty on winnings would simply destroy the gaming industry.

They would have to create a new tax schedule to tax winnings as income because legal cases have settled that gambling winnings aren't income.  Not only would income tax on winnings be trivially easy to avoid, it would also mean that everyone who got 3 numbers up on the lottery would have to complete a tax return....

 

it should take you about 3 seconds to find a way round that rule.

If you add up all the poker profits around the country - even taxing it at 30% is going to yield a fairly trivial amount for the treasury.

As stated above the providers of the service are the ones with constant and consistent revenue, hence why they get taxed and it's unlikely that the players ever will.

such a cute comment, the authorities have the ability to look when they have 'justifiable means'.

I have this in my security clearance every 5 years. :)

tax is stupid.

I had a tax audit recently, was really stressful - I was also absolutely bewildered at how much and what they could find out seemingly very easily, luckily I had nothing (much) to hide but if I did I'd have been abso shitting myself because there is no doubt whatsoever they would have found it.

Pretty scary really lol

I would put the chances of your tax affairs being investigated at around 90,000/1

the answer is yes as it will save a lot of time an complications later on if the worse happens, as I have had a stressful time over last year when the tax man was investigating all my finances over the last 15 years  which took 6 months to clear up with them coming to my house wt, actually two of them where I had to show tv clips  explaining what the differance between tournament an cash game poker is.an all my online poker accounts from the past an deposit receipts from casinos  to explain an prove I even had bettting slips photo copied to show them e.t.c. The trouble with meetings with my accounts to prove that poker had paid for for my lifestlye an had helped me with buying my buisness an visa versa was quite torrid an I hope I don't ever have to go through that again. Thankfully I was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that my assets were all legit but the invasion of privacy an paying an accountant an loss of sleep did affect my life during those months.

all lies. I've seen you play poker and it ain't paid for shit :)

Wat does this mean. youre saying i didnt just have a tax investigation?

Youd know better than me tho

Not at all , don't doubt you for a second. If there's one thing you always sound, it's totally authentic

Was referring to OP. Probably very bad note from me, but I would have thought that making a small number of deposits amounting to a small amount of money isn't very likely to bring you to the head of any list for investigation.

Worry about it, be safe, and keep records is what I meant to say, being responsible and all..

nice fking problem, i want a rebate.

haha sorry my reply sounded joke biting I really wasn't too bothered :P

Yh, you're right, the OP is in no danger watsoever of being suspected of anything, the times when he'll find himself under scrutiny is if he starts to mix gambling money and "real world" money together, the I think the IR has a right to suspect you're on the fiddle because it's almost impossible you wont be :D

Even then they won't bother with the poker side at all because they know whatever they find they wont be able to fine/do anything so it's not worth there time investigating it.

I got under the spotlight cos of business dealings with another guy who was under very heavy investigation and I had gotten into a bad habbit of mixing money from my business account, "luckily" for me I was using business pofits to disguise gambling losses, as opposed to using gambling winnings to disguise business profits lol- so I was ok !!

yeah but you also claim to have been abducted by aliens and analy probed...... And I know for a fact they were not aliens :)

Iv told you countless times not to wear that stupid mask.

Gambling winnings are extremely unlikely to be taxed going forward.  Aside from the point about losses and admininstration, at present the Revenue have a put option on punters' losses which is the optimal position for them to be in.  In the days of punter's duty they had a call option on punters' wins which is far less favourable.

This isn't a big favour the government are giving the punter.  They know exactly what they are doing so don't worry yourselves.

:) ....... You must do a trip report from this weekend. Never saw you play a comp but saw you walk upto cash tables with modest chips and be standing at the cage cashing out mahoosive chips not long after once or twice.

There are only two things certain on blonde. Arguments and this conversation about taxes.

But at least no one's mentioned Hitler....  ;hide;

But fwiw being a good christian boy, Hitler would have deffo taxed us

:D