Poker Rules From The IRS

The United States Internal Revenue Service has announced that casinos and other sponsors of poker tournaments are going to be required to report winners and their winnings to the IRS. This new requirement is planned to go into affect March 4^th of 2008, and this was released to the U.S. Treasury Department September 4^th.

For tournaments completed in 2007 the tournament sponsors will not be required to report this information to the IRS, however after the March date they will be required to report this and winnings of over $5,000 on an IRS form W-2G.

Tournament sponsors who comply with this new Regulation will be also required to withhold federal income tax at the end of the tournament. The IRS will enforce this new regulation be followed, and the withholding amount is usually about 25%. In order to comply with this new rule the player will have to supply their taxpayer identification number or social security number. Should a winner not give this information to the tournament sponsor they should then withhold 28% federal income tax in order to follow the guidelines of this March regulation.

All winners will also be required to report any winnings to the IRS whether or not they receive the W-2G form.

One must wonder how the IRS can place these new March regulations into affect when Americans are not allowed to gamble online because of the ban (UIGEA) placed by the United States Government, it must be true that these agencies do not share information.