Tax Advisor

[Kurn]

JD, you need to find a tax attorney and/or CPA with experience dealing with gambling issues.

While the IRS usually requires 2 prior profitable years (to demonstrate an expectation of success) to justify filing your gambling income as self-employment income, people have fought that and won. The simple fact that poker is your primary source of income is a strong mitigating factor, but you need an advocate who won't let the IRS run over him.

This statement troubles me about your guy:there should be no real problems if the wins/losses thing isn't totally accurate in Missouri

The federal tax code does not change based on what state you live in. Any statement he makes regarding Missouri is only relevant to MO state income taxes. Federally, you still must list all winning sessions as *other income* on form 1040, and all losing sessions as an itemized deduction on schedule A. IRS pu. 529 expressly forbids claiming the net. This isn't as bad as it sounds. As long as your records indicate an honest and consistant attempt to be accurate, the Feds won't be too rough on you. Remember, their job isn't to put people in jail, their job is to collect money. They only get tough when they think you're trying to deceive them.

The guy you talked to sounds out of his element. Find somebody who kinows this stuff.