Let's suppose you received an EFT from Neteller for as little as ($500.) after banking transfers with gaming companies are no longer "legal". Now let's also suppose that Uncle Sam told the banks to let them come in for say 90 days and give the government the information on who got them. Do you think ANY bank will disobey? We have allready agreed that banks are the "most regulated---". End of my tired song.
What if you make 30K a year, but get a little money of a car accident settlement. With the settlement money you play sports books make a little money AND REPORT IT. Will this raise a flag? Well, between my wife and I we make over 50K, but add on the books this year it will be over 80K.<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by WildBill:
Sorry I didn't get to this quicker, but just understand that the rules are exactly the same as in a casino. The general rule is $10,000 in transactions in a 24 hour period must be reported with a CTR (Cash Transaction Report). Amounts of $3,000 or more require the location to take your drivers license info or something that is a positive ID and keep a record of it just in case you make multiple transactions. The place you do this business at is also supposed to check those 3k transactions and add them up to make sure that you indeed did not go past 10k over the 24 hours. If you did not do that then they are not required to file a CTR. They do have to keep those smaller transactions on file for something like a year, but that is purely in case an authority wants to investigate you. There is no crime for making these transactions and a vast majority of them do not get investigated so don't think that just because a CTR is filed that you will be ringing some gigantic bells or something. What they basically are used for is to build a case for prosecution, almost always by the IRS. If you are reporting that you make 25k a year on your 1040 and they see that you have 7 CTRs for over 10k they are going to immediately know something is up and your chances of an audit are quite good I would guess. If you are making 250k and you get 2 reports 6 months apart they probably don't even get alerted to it. So just keep in mind that this isn't intended for some feds to just sit over and watch the CTRs roll in, its a resource they have to use properly and with some safeguards for your privacy and innocence. Yes some people have gotten snagged by it, but for the most part it hasn't really caused too much trouble except for the institutions that have to spend millions in meeting the system's requirements.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Sorry I didn't get to this quicker, but just understand that the rules are exactly the same as in a casino. The general rule is $10,000 in transactions in a 24 hour period must be reported with a CTR (Cash Transaction Report). Amounts of $3,000 or more require the location to take your drivers license info or something that is a positive ID and keep a record of it just in case you make multiple transactions. The place you do this business at is also supposed to check those 3k transactions and add them up to make sure that you indeed did not go past 10k over the 24 hours. If you did not do that then they are not required to file a CTR. They do have to keep those smaller transactions on file for something like a year, but that is purely in case an authority wants to investigate you. There is no crime for making these transactions and a vast majority of them do not get investigated so don't think that just because a CTR is filed that you will be ringing some gigantic bells or something. What they basically are used for is to build a case for prosecution, almost always by the IRS. If you are reporting that you make 25k a year on your 1040 and they see that you have 7 CTRs for over 10k they are going to immediately know something is up and your chances of an audit are quite good I would guess. If you are making 250k and you get 2 reports 6 months apart they probably don't even get alerted to it. So just keep in mind that this isn't intended for some feds to just sit over and watch the CTRs roll in, its a resource they have to use properly and with some safeguards for your privacy and innocence. Yes some people have gotten snagged by it, but for the most part it hasn't really caused too much trouble except for the institutions that have to spend millions in meeting the system's requirements.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yeah, it might. You would get audited, if you have done your taxes right then you have nothing to get worried about. Once again remember that the odds are on your side. Thousands, make that tens of thousands are regular offshore bettors. How many have gotten into trouble for it? Further how many people do you think report correctly their wins and losses on a tax form? I would venture its in the less than 1% range. So yes if you want to be paranoid like Oldman is all the time then worry away, but to think that in a country with about 285 million people you are going to be the one that gets singled out to be screwed because you bet a little money that you aren't supposed to, well you be the judge if that is wise. After all this is one of those things where you could say your chances of winning the lottery are infinitely higher than getting thrown into the slammer for your recreational activities.
I'm not worried about being thrown in the slammer. I just don't want the IRS around sniffing my
. I heard once they get on you it is hard to shake them off. They would probably find something to nail you on, to swindle some money out of you.
It's not like we aren't over taxed anyway. I was just wondering.
This will be the first time I report any gambling winnings. Although, this IS the first year I have kept detailed records of my gambling. I will file this year, and the "hopefully" many years to come. Then, I guess, I wait and see what happens.
It's not like we aren't over taxed anyway. I was just wondering.
This will be the first time I report any gambling winnings. Although, this IS the first year I have kept detailed records of my gambling. I will file this year, and the "hopefully" many years to come. Then, I guess, I wait and see what happens.
Sorry dude, but sniffing around your rear end and those of others is what they feel they are supposed to do. If you want to be completely safe and free of their attention move to another country. Remember no matter what you do, they still do random audits and all your attempts at keeping things under their radar won't do you much good in that situation. You took a good first step, but once again make sure you do the numbers absolutely perfect if that is what you are hoping to avoid. That means properly detailing wins AND losses. Its not correct to just say I won $4k last year and leave it at that. You have to detail that you won $77k and then on a separate form that you lost $73k, for example, or else they will get to sniffing...
Wildbill's post sounds very plausible. The only part I question is "If you are making 250k and you get 2 reports 6 months apart they probably don't even get alerted to it." My understanding is that the IRS do not share their records with other departments unless someone is specifically targeted. So the government agency that stores all the CTR activity does not know anyone's salary levels. Then how can they tell if something looks fishy?? This is pure conjecture but maybe CTR activity BY ITSELF does not trigger a red flag. Perhaps you have to attract heat for a different reason before an agent decides to run your name through any of their financial databases.
Wildbill> Sorry I didn't get to this quicker, but just understand that the rules are exactly the same as in a casino. The general rule is $10,000 in transactions in a 24 hour period must be reported with a CTR (Cash Transaction Report). Amounts of $3,000 or more require the location to take your drivers license info or something that is a positive ID and keep a record of it just in case you make multiple transactions. The place you do this business at is also supposed to check those 3k transactions and add them up to make sure that you indeed did not go past 10k over the 24 hours. If you did not do that then they are not required to file a CTR. They do have to keep those smaller transactions on file for something like a year, but that is purely in case an authority wants to investigate you. There is no crime for making these transactions and a vast majority of them do not get investigated so don't think that just because a CTR is filed that you will be ringing some gigantic bells or something. What they basically are used for is to build a case for prosecution, almost always by the IRS. If you are reporting that you make 25k a year on your 1040 and they see that you have 7 CTRs for over 10k they are going to immediately know something is up and your chances of an audit are quite good I would guess. If you are making 250k and you get 2 reports 6 months apart they probably don't even get alerted to it. So just keep in mind that this isn't intended for some feds to just sit over and watch the CTRs roll in, its a resource they have to use properly and with some safeguards for your privacy and innocence. Yes some people have gotten snagged by it, but for the most part it hasn't really caused too much trouble except for the institutions that have to spend millions in meeting the system's requirements.
Wildbill> Sorry I didn't get to this quicker, but just understand that the rules are exactly the same as in a casino. The general rule is $10,000 in transactions in a 24 hour period must be reported with a CTR (Cash Transaction Report). Amounts of $3,000 or more require the location to take your drivers license info or something that is a positive ID and keep a record of it just in case you make multiple transactions. The place you do this business at is also supposed to check those 3k transactions and add them up to make sure that you indeed did not go past 10k over the 24 hours. If you did not do that then they are not required to file a CTR. They do have to keep those smaller transactions on file for something like a year, but that is purely in case an authority wants to investigate you. There is no crime for making these transactions and a vast majority of them do not get investigated so don't think that just because a CTR is filed that you will be ringing some gigantic bells or something. What they basically are used for is to build a case for prosecution, almost always by the IRS. If you are reporting that you make 25k a year on your 1040 and they see that you have 7 CTRs for over 10k they are going to immediately know something is up and your chances of an audit are quite good I would guess. If you are making 250k and you get 2 reports 6 months apart they probably don't even get alerted to it. So just keep in mind that this isn't intended for some feds to just sit over and watch the CTRs roll in, its a resource they have to use properly and with some safeguards for your privacy and innocence. Yes some people have gotten snagged by it, but for the most part it hasn't really caused too much trouble except for the institutions that have to spend millions in meeting the system's requirements.
