Doing Taxes for Poker Players
For those that work a regular 9-5 job, doing taxes isn’t so bad. In fact, most people in this situation just take their W-2, or whatever other form, to an accountant and pay them to do the work. The whole process doesn’t take very long and is easy for those who go this route. But for poker players, the whole tax process can be a lot more hectic since they have more to keep track of even if they are having someone else do the actual taxes.
That’s why many poker players have questions as to what they should do in regards to reporting poker winnings. Now I’m definitely not an accountant but I do know some things in regards to what poker players should keep track of for their taxes. One thing poker players need to do is report their winnings and losses separate from each other. This just makes it easier for the player or their preparer to get the taxes done.
Another thing you need to do is to be careful of the winnings you report when funneling the money into a checking account. Some people make the mistake of reporting less winnings than what they’re depositing into a checking account and so that looks suspicious.
When keeping track of your stuff it is a good idea to do it on a spreadsheet through something like Excel because it makes it much easier to do the taxes this way. The preparer will also charge you much less if you do this too since it is less work for them. If you’re able to do the other mentioned things when keeping track of your poker taxes then you will be much better off when it comes time to do them.