Poker winning in canada - Page 7

How can I become Canadian. Would hate to win the main and have to give 1/2 to the gov.

Hypothetically. Say you are USA citizen an make the November 9 of the wsop me. During the break before November could you renounce your citizenship to avoid paying taxes? What about renouncing immediately after winning the tournament.

Just sick the us gov will take 4 million if you win 8 million in the main. Why does the gov deserve even one cent of that money?

Poker players can't be taxed!! wtf people???

it's not a regular job! they don't receive any government benefits, they are just playing with their money.

now Casinos and Poker Sites, sure! they will always win in the end of the month, making profit out off people from the government's custody.

there was a site that reported the canadian wosp finalist had to pay like 50% in taxes. This cant be true? Can anyone way in on this.

Agreed with careface_'s posts mostly. Professional poker as a source of income should definitely be taxable if I'm making a moralistic judgment, but the practice of how is indeed murky and difficult to implement straightforwardly for reasons careface said.

You def can't consider poker rake as tax, that's the fee you're paying for the service provided when a company facilitates your access to games and players you can expect to win money from. If you were in corporate employment, the pretax wage you'd be paid by the firm would (usually) be a fair bit less than the value you're adding to the firm as a result of your efforts (otherwise the firm wouldn't keep employing you) and you can think of the difference as the work you do that your employer gains from in order for the firm to have an incentive to exist. Clear parallels with poker sites here.

I do think you can consider some proportion of poker winnings to be taxed twice but not for the rake reason. I think net losers that contribute into the poker economy overall are contributing from their disposable income, or money that has already been taxed. Net longterm winners (professionals) are getting their revenue from dollars that, although may have been passed around from hand to hand within the poker economy, were post-tax dollars at the time they entered the poker economy.

edit: when i think about it more, i've made a stupid argument lol. firms make revenue from consumers who are spending their after-tax dollar and ofcourse still have to pay tax on their revenue.

ok conclusion: professional poker players should be taxed, somehow (feeling kind of bad now that i wasn't, being in uk)

On October 25 2013 11:50 NMcNasty wrote: ^ That's not how poker actually works though. In reality its a meat-grinder not a lottery. The fish get split up and devoured between the house and the pros. I can open up Stars and tell you who is who within five minutes. The casinos get taxed on their share, why shouldn't the pros be? Simple question for the no-tax crowd - Should professional poker players be able to freeroll the government forever? Should they be able to drive on govt roads, get govt healthcare, get police, fire, and military protection all for free for the entirety of their lives? The answer that its not an issue because there just aren't professional poker players somehow is retarded.

I don't have an opinion on the overall topic because it's kind of a complex situation and I'm probably gonna be biased anyway. But you can't say "Should professional poker players be able to freeroll the government forever?" We pay tax on everything except on our income, so it's really not a huge deal when you take into consideration everything else we give in taxes. In any case, because we are basically a company that is run by ourselves, we should be able to have the benefits of what companies have, that way we can deduce costs, etc. Basically a poker player, because it's self employed (kinda) should be able to run like a micro/small bussiness.

On November 11 2013 13:09 locoo wrote: Show nested quote + On October 25 2013 11:50 NMcNasty wrote: ^ That's not how poker actually works though. In reality its a meat-grinder not a lottery. The fish get split up and devoured between the house and the pros. I can open up Stars and tell you who is who within five minutes. The casinos get taxed on their share, why shouldn't the pros be? Simple question for the no-tax crowd - Should professional poker players be able to freeroll the government forever? Should they be able to drive on govt roads, get govt healthcare, get police, fire, and military protection all for free for the entirety of their lives? The answer that its not an issue because there just aren't professional poker players somehow is retarded. I don't have an opinion on the overall topic because it's kind of a complex situation and I'm probably gonna be biased anyway. But you can't say "Should professional poker players be able to freeroll the government forever?" We pay tax on everything except on our income, so it's really not a huge deal when you take into consideration everything else we give in taxes. In any case, because we are basically a company that is run by ourselves, we should be able to have the benefits of what companies have, that way we can deduce costs, etc. Basically a poker player, because it's self employed (kinda) should be able to run like a micro/small bussiness.

It differs between countries and states, but if the taxes you're referring to is sales tax, that's only going to add up to a couple hundred dollars a year, as opposed to tens of thousands for income tax.

In the US, you already can deduct business expenses, but you have to pay 15%ish self-employment tax on your income (in addition to normal income tax). I'm able to deduct anything I spend on trips to Vegas, Atlantic City, or the Bahamas as a business expense, and also 15% of my rent due to my home office, but it still usually doesn't add up enough to surpass the extra self-employment tax. But if you travel a lot overseas those deductions will be amazing for you.