tax treatment of poker winnings

[Shish-Taouk 0]

Hi Daniel,Nice to see you in the media lately, and enjoyed your spot on "The Score". It's great to see you doing well, and inspiring for us poker players here in Toronto.Anyhow, just a quick question as it relates to taxable income, and specifically how does the IRS view your winnings - I presume you have to declare income taxes on tournament winnings, but not cash game winnings?Recently, a buddy of mine called me to say that our affiliate money we get very month for the rake kick-back on Empire Poker was being held, pending his completion of some forms requesting declaration of income - in short, I was furious, since I don't know tax jurisdiction law but it seems to me that these online outfits can make up their "house" rules as it were.Any thoughts?Sincerely, poker fan,Shish-TaoukP.S. I like Romanian food tood, but Lebanese is my favourite here in Toronto.

[captaindew 0]

I'm an attorney and I do some tax work. I have an LLM in Taxation from NYU. I'm not gonna offer anyone legal advice, but I will see what I can dig up in the way of any sort of short legal article or IRS publication on the subject.