Links to more information about taxes

Good starting points for finding more information than is given here are the IRS documents Topic 419: Gambling Income and Expenses and Tax Tip 2004-33. This excerpt from IRS Publication 529 for tax year 2003 may also be informative (but be sure to check the latest official IRS version).

Good books about gambling and taxes are hard to find, but there are a few:

• Tax Guide for Gamblers by Yolanda Smulik-Roche and Roger Roche. Here is a review on r.g.p The authors also publish a newsletter on their web site.
• Tax Help for the Frugal Gambler by Marissa Chien and Jean Scott.

The Roches also write a regular column for Card Player magazine. In this archive of their columns, they answer many tax-related questions from readers. Some interesting selections:

• What is a Session When Playing Poker?
• Want to File Your Taxes as a Professional Gambler?
• Should You File as a Professional Gambler?
• IRS Targeting Those Who File as Professionals
• Protect Yourself From Gambling Audits
• Not Filing Your Taxes Can Result in Prison Time
• Group Wagering – or How Not to Get Left Liable for the Taxes

Russ Fox has written two informative articles on US tax laws that apply to online poker players:

• What is a gambling session? – how to satisfy the IRS requirement for tracking sessions.
• Good questions, wrong answers – in which Russ points out errors in a Card Player article that explained how the tax law affects poker players.

The rec.gambling.poker archives have a lot of good discussion about the tax implications of playing poker, both online and offline, in ring games and tournaments:

• Help-Prof. Gambler & Tax Implications (Dec 1998)
• Poker Tax questions (Feb 2000)
• "Professional Player" Tax Question (Oct 2001)
• gambling winnings ,,, Tax Help!!! (Apr 2002)
• taxes/gambling (Jul 2003)

(Remember, the information here is not tax advice. For advice you will need to see a tax professional.)