How Should Multiple Buy-Ins for a Poker Tournament be Handled on a W-2G?

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Russ

Poker tournaments today have various forms. Some are “freeze-outs,” where you can only buy into the tournament once. Some have rebuys and add-ons, where if you lose all your chips you can rebuy into the tournament and if you’re in the tournament at a certain point you can purchase an “add-on” of additional tournament chips. A format that has grown in popularity is the multiple reentry tournament. Here, if you lose all your chips you can reenter the tournament. The difference between this and a rebuy tournament is that in a reentry tournament you pay the house fee for running the tournament; in a rebuy tournament, your rebuy goes exclusively into the prize pool.

The IRS Office of Chief Counsel issued an opinion back in July (but released last week) on how to treat multiple buy-ins for a poker tournament vis-a-vis issuing W-2Gs. Do note that this is solely the opinion of the Chief Counsel’s office; a court could make a completely different ruling. That said, the analysis looks correct to me.

The issue the IRS counsel needed to answer was, “Whether multiple buy-ins should be deducted as individual wagers or in the aggregate from winnings in a poker tournament for the purposes of reporting the winnings on a Form W-2G?” The conclusion the IRS came to is that multiple buy-ins are not identical wagers and should not be aggregated. Although this is a bad ruling for recreational gamblers, I think the IRS got it right.

So when a person rebuys is it an identical wager? “Of course it is, Russ; the person is paying the same amount for the entry into the tournament.” Yes, that’s correct but is his situation identical?

The IRS noted that the preamble to Treasury Decision 7919 explains the rule on identical bets.

…winning on identical bets must be aggregated to determine if the $1,000 floor has been exceeded. This ensures that bettors are treated the same, whether or not a wager is divided into several small components. Identical bets are those in which winning depends on the occurrence (or non-occurrence) of the same event or events. For example, two wagers on a horse to win a particular race general[ly] are identical. … [But] … wagers containing different elements, e.g., an “exacta” and a “trifecta” are not identical.

The issue is that the conditions when you reenter a poker tournament are not identical. Consider if you buy-in before the tournament begins, and there are 100 entrants. When you reenter, there are now 120 entrants. The prize pool is different, your chances of winning are different, and, most likely, the opponents at your table will be different. While the amount wagered is identical, the wager itself has a different chance of success.

The conclusion the IRS draws is correct:

Multiple buy-ins into a single poker tournament event are not identical wagers and therefore should not be aggregated for purposes of withholding and reporting requirements under section 3402(q) and the regulations thereunder. If a player wins a prize at the close of a tournament, only the buy-in that resulted in the win should be deducted from the winnings to determine the “proceeds from a wager.”

While I agree with the conclusion, this is not good for players (or for poker). First, for professional gamblers this is a non-issue. A professional gambler nets his wins and losses, so while a W-2G may have a larger win, the professional gambler can offset that by his higher losses. Nothing has changed for him or her.

However, the situation is different for amateur gamblers. An amateur gambler cannot not his wins and losses. Wins are Other Income (line 21, Form 1040) while losses are an itemized deduction on Schedule A. This ruling will cause an amateur gambler’s Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) to increase. An increased AGI has numerous deleterious effects, including (but not limited to):

  • You lose the value of exemptions;
  • You can lose certain itemized deductions both directly (2% AGI, 7.5%/10% AGI restrictions) and through the phase-out of itemized deductions (note that gambling losses are not impacted by this);
  • You can lose the ability to deduct student loan interest;
  • You may lose tax credits for health insurance; and,
  • Some states do not allow deductions for gambling losses, so if you’re a resident of one of those states you must pay tax on artificial “wins”.

Personally, I think that the reentry format is bad for poker. (A discussion of that has far more to do with the health of the poker economy than taxes.) This ruling from the IRS appears to be legally correct but is another blow to amateur players.

Posted in Gambling | Tagged | 2 Comments

Ghost Hunter, Pheasant Hunter, or Deduction Hunter: No Matter, He Loses at Tax Court

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Russ

My favorite Tax Court judge, Mark Holmes, is out with an opinion where Ghostbusters makes an appearance. And once again keeping records would win the day but perhaps that would take a supernatural effort from today’s petitioner.

David Laudon is a chiropractor licensed in Minnesota. He made nearly $290,000 in bank deposits from 2007 to 2009 yet reported only a bit less than $210,000 in gross receipts on his returns. He deducted as business expenses for his chiropractic home office a Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and numerous pieces of hair-salon equipment. He also claimed deductions for driving tens of thousands of miles throughout Minnesota and the Dakotas–both to treat patients and to perform an assortment of other services. The Commissioner thought this was a stretch and urges us to support his adjustments.

This doesn’t look good, especially when I see the words,

Some of Laudon’s stated reasons for making these trips strain credibility: for example, driving to a “schizophrenic” patient who was–on more than one occasion–“running scared of demons” down a rural Minnesota highway, or driving to a patient’s home in a Minneapolis suburb– expensing 261 miles–because he had received a call from police that she had overdosed on OxyContin prescribed by her physician. Laudon claimed to have driven hundreds of miles per day–sometimes without a valid license–to see patients, but several of these trips were for medical procedures he was not licensed to perform. Even his testimony about multiple entries in the logs where he wrote “DUI” was not credible: He claimed that these were not references to being stopped by police while under the influence, or driving while his license was suspended, but instead were his misspellings of a patient named “Dewey”–a supposed patient of his. [emphasis in original]

That’s just a taste of the decision. I won’t go into the minutiae, but I think you’ve got a taste of what’s going on. The details include unreported income (“But because he didn’t produce any evidence verifying that these amounts were deposited into the relevant accounts, Laudon hasn’t met his burden of proof.”), an automobile log that was “‘not a complete itemized thing'” led to those deductions being denied, and a home office that wasn’t exclusive (“We particularly disbelieve his claim that the Xbox, Wii, big-screen TVs, and other electronics in his basement were used exclusively for chiropractic purposes since this claim conflicts with his much more plausible admission to the IRS examiner during audit that his daughter and his girlfriend’s son would play these video games while he was on the phone.”) and had no substantiation led to that being denied.

As I’ve said in the past, keep a mileage log. Keep records of your deductions. Ask your tax professional about the rules to have a home office. And keep good records.

Case: Laudon v. Commissioner, T.C. Summary Opinion 2015-54

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The Family that Commits Tax Evasion Together Goes to ClubFed Together

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Russ

You own a payroll company with your son. It’s been a good year, so you decide to give yourself a bonus from the corporation. There’s nothing wrong with that–it’s your company, and you certainly can pay yourself whatever you feel is appropriate. You do need to report that income on your tax return, of course. That last step was omitted by the subjects of this post.

William and Robert McCullough are a father and son who reside in Westborough, Massachusetts. They own a payroll company, Harpers Data Services, in Worcester, Massachusetts. There company did quite well from 2007 to 2012, as they deposited $11 million in two company bank accounts. They didn’t tell their company accountant about those two accounts. Well, the corporation only omitted $3.78 million from the corporation tax return.

Meanwhile, William McCullough wrote checks to himself, his son, and Gary Davis, a former owner of the business. One series of checks totaled $4.7 million; another was $2.7 million. That allowed the McCulloughs and Davis to avoid $1.7 million of personal income tax. The McCulloughs and Davis pleaded guilty to various tax evasion charges last week. William McCullough also pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

From 2009 through 2011, Harpers maintained client trust accounts and a client tax account. These accounts contained client funds, which were to be used to pay employees’ paychecks and employees’ federal and state taxes. From 2009 through 2011, William McCullough took approximately $1 million from the client trust accounts and deposited it into a Harpers account. In 2010, he took $750,000 from the client tax account and deposited it into a Harpers account. At the time William McCullough took this money, the funds belonged solely to the clients of Harpers Data Services. McCullough’s fraud resulted in a theft of approximately $1.8 million dollars.

The McCulloughs and Mr. Davis will almost certainly be heading to ClubFed. This is yet another reminder for everyone who uses a payroll service to join EFTPS and make sure your payroll deposits are being made. Trust but verify is excellent practice in payroll.

Posted in Tax Fraud | 1 Comment

IRS Removes Social Security Number from Some Notices But…

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Russ

The IRS has begun removing social security numbers from some IRS notices in the header (leaving just the last four digits, such as xxx-xx-1234). The reason for this is the problem of identity theft. And I give kudos to the IRS for this. Unfortunately, the IRS hasn’t executed this that well.

Today I opened an IRS notice that was sent to a client. The good: The social security number in the header had only the last four digits. The bad: Right below the header the IRS put in a bar code–presumably to make processing of the return mail easier. Below the bar code in relatively small print (but easily readable by me, and I wear glasses) was the deciphering of the code. Of course, it contained the social security number.

My helpful hint to the IRS: It does no good to remove the social security number from the header and then add it right below the bar code. Identity thieves can read it there, too.

Posted in IRS | Tagged | 2 Comments

The Hospital’s Closing; Who Will Notice the Missing Charity Money?

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Russ

Irvine, California used to have Irvine Regional Hospital. The hospital closed back in 2009 (but has since reopened as Hoag Hospital Irvine). When I lived in Irvine one of my doctors has his office in the medical building that’s attached to the hospital. I imagine he’s a bit perturbed over the following story.

Dr. Bruce Hagadorn was chief of staff at the hospital and was on the board of the hospital’s charity committee. As the hospital neared closing the committee had to decide what to do with the $250,000 in the charity fund. They decided to the Hoag Hospital Foundation.

The money didn’t end up there. Instead, it allegedly went into Dr. Hagadorn’s personal medical practice. I can’t say he embezzled the money as Dr. Hagadorn didn’t plead guilty to that. Instead, he pleaded guilty to eight tax evasion charges related to not reporting the money as income on his tax returns. Dr. Hagadorn will get to spend a year at ClubCal thinking that decision over. He has already made restitution of the funds and paid his state income tax debt of $103,865.

As readers of this blog definitely know, embezzled money–oops, money that’s income that comes into your possession–is taxable. Yes, illegal income is just as taxable as legal income. I don’t know if Dr. Hagadorn would be $147,000 wealthier if he had paid tax on the $250,000, but he might be. It also goes to show that the doctors at Irvine Regional Hospital did notice where the money didn’t go to.

Posted in Irvine, Tax Evasion | 1 Comment

Sergeant Schultz to the Rescue!

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Russ

Back in the 1960s there was a television show called Hogan’s Heroes. The comedy was set in a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany during World War II. One of the characters on the show was Sergeant Schultz. Here’s an excerpt via YouTube:

Schultz’s famous line was, “I know nothing, I see nothing,….” That’s what it feels like when we deal with answers from the IRS and the Obama Administration. Federal judges have come to that conclusion, too. Here are two court rulings from this past week.

The first case isn’t related to taxes, but relates to the EPA. As reported by Kimberly Strassel in the Wall Street Journal, there’s a case relating to Pebble Partnership developing a mine in Alaska. An employee of the EPA, Phillip North, apparently didn’t like the idea. He’s alleged to have used private email to coordinate his activities as an EPA employee with anti-mine activists (which would definitely be a problem). On Thursday, a federal judge issued a subpoena for Mr. North over the EPA’s objection. Ms. Stassel concludes her piece,

…U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland strongly disagreed—noting that Mr. North “appears to be at the center of Pebble’s claims that EPA impermissibly” worked with outside groups, and that he is the “originator of documents likely related to the claims” held on “private computer equipment.” He issued the subpoena, dryly noting: “Mr. North’s personal appearance is necessary. Indeed, the court would be surprised if the EPA were not as anxious as Pebble to obtain testimony and access to documents controlled by Mr. North.”

Judge Holland, consider yourself surprised. The EPA isn’t anxious for Mr. North to appear, any more than the State Department is anxious for the FBI to scour Hillary Clinton’s server. Those agencies know exactly why their employees use private email. And they know the release of it means nothing but trouble.

Meanwhile, the organization Cause of Action won a round in federal court. Cause of Action was curious on whether the IRS sent confidential taxpayer information to the White House. This stemmed from Austin Goolsbee, the former White House Economic Advisor, making remarks on the tax status of Koch Industries. (Since Koch Industries is a private company, their tax status is known by Koch and the IRS.) Cause of Action took their curiosity one step further: They filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the IRS on any requests from the White House for confidential information.

The IRS refused to release anything, stating that Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code prohibits the IRS from even divulging such requests. Cause of Action then filed a lawsuit demanding the information, and Judge Amy Jackson agreed with Cause of Action that Section 6103 can’t be used to refuse to divulge the requests.

“This court questions whether section 6103 should or would shield records that indicate confidential taxpayer information was misused, or that government officials made an improper attempt to access that information,” the judge wrote in denying the IRS’s request to close out the case.

Now, I expect the Obama Administration to appeal this ruling, but sooner or later the truth will come out. There’s a pattern in this administration, and it’s one of secrecy, denials, and cover-up. Maybe it’s all innocent, but to me it’s failing the smell test. I try hard to avoid pushing one political view over another in this blog, but there is one thing that is clear to all but the most partisan Obama Administration supporters: The administration that promised to be the most transparent in history is likely the most opaque in history. Even Sergeant Schultz could have done better.

Addendum: Here is a link to Judge Jackson’s ruling.

Posted in IRS | 1 Comment

When Even IRS Employees Are Tempted to Commit Identity Theft…

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Russ

…you know there’s a huge problem. Especially given that the employee should realize that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) does look at alleged criminal activities by IRS employees. Yet it happens.

Take Kenneth Goheen of Austin. Mr. Goheen worked in the IRS Austin Service Center. He apparently looked at applications for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) and used those applications to file more than 50 fraudulent returns. He pocketed over $120,000 while committing his crimes. Luckily, TIGTA and IRS Criminal Investigation found out about his malfeasance.

As noted in the Department of Justice press release,

“Goheen’s conduct is doubly offensive. He not only stole money from the government, but he used his unique position in the government—a position of trust—to wrongfully enrich himself,” stated U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr.

Mr. Goheen was sentenced to two years plus one day at ClubFed, must forfeit $15,442 seized from his bank account, and must make restitution of $104,292.

While it’s well and good that TIGTA and IRS Criminal Investigation caught Mr. Goheen, consider the question why did Mr. Goheen commit his crimes? Obviously he thought he’d get away with it–and that’s disturbing. No, I suspect that most criminals think they’ll get away with their crimes. Here, though, Mr. Goheen should be aware of the IRS efforts (or lack thereof) in fighting identity theft. Clearly, he felt that that the IRS efforts weren’t particularly meaningful. And that’s what bothers me here.

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You Will EFile and Electronically Remit to California’s EDD

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Russ

Beginning in 2017, all California employers with ten or more employees will be required to electronically file all withholding tax reports and electronically remit all payments to California’s Employment Development Department (EDD). Beginning in 2018, all California employers, regardless of size, will be required to electronically file and remit.

These changes are part of legislation recently passed by the California legislature and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.

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Will the Last One Out Turn the Lights Off?

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Russ

An interesting op-ed in the Orange County Register talks about how Democrats in the California legislature are considering a long list of taxes. The author, Joseph Vranich, is a business relocation consultant based in my old homestead of Irvine, California. Mr. Vranich laments the current state of California:

Think about Dan Castilleja, president of DHF Technical Products, who said when relocating that it’s easier to expand in New Mexico than in the Los Angeles area, where “We are hampered by everything from payroll to taxes to regulation.”

Examples abound of companies leaving for other states – even to the so-called “Rust Belt” – because their friendlier business environments far outshine our disadvantages.

California’s public officials come across as being uncaring about the damage they inflict on businesses, investors, employees and their families and to the towns that lose jobs to distant locations.

Nearly four years ago my business–and the one whole employee in the Bronze Golden State (me)–left for Nevada because sometimes silver is better than gold. Mr. Vranich is seeing the trend starting up again while California has a budget surplus. Consider what will happen when California actually goes through and raises taxes even more.

Today, California is horribly dependent on the stock market. The last report I saw showed that 50% of California’s tax revenues come from 1% of the population. That’s mostly from the tax on capital gains. What happens when the stock market is flat, or suffers a bear market? Meanwhile, the middle class is being driven out of the state.

The solution for California is one that Democrats in California may not like, but it’s the only one that works long-term. Government spending will need to be cut, programs will need to be pared, and regulations made far more business friendly. Businesses don’t like to move, but math is the same in California, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, and Florida. If California continues to make businesses suffer, businesses have a solution. I made that choice four years ago; others are making it today.

Posted in California | 1 Comment

How to Commit Tax Fraud 101

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Russ

The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR) has an article spotlighting tax return fraud. That in itself isn’t surprising given that Florida is the hotbed for this crime. What is depressing is how easy it is to commit the crime. While the Social Security Death List is no longer available for the fraudsters, FCIR reports that they turned to a commercial service called findmypast.com. The site is designed for finding your ancestors, but enterprising crooks discovered it could be used to commit tax fraud.

My guess is that old records contain social security numbers–the numbers weren’t as big a deal in the pre-Internet era–and they just find people in that manner. Sure, they are undoubtedly violating the Terms & Conditions of the website but if you’re going to commit a felony (or several), what’s the big deal about violating some T&C’s?

Meanwhile, two press releases from the East Bay (near San Francisco) highlight the magnitude of this problem. Ebony Standifer conspired to obtain false identities and used them to obtain $193,602 in false refunds. She pleaded guilty this week to one count of conspiracy to file false claims and one count of aggravated identity theft. Three other East Bay residents pleaded guilty to conspiracy to file false claims in what appears to be a separate tax fraud scheme. These individuals received $287,498 in false refunds.

Until the IRS makes it far more difficult for the fraudsters, this epidemic will continue. As I’ve said, why rob banks?

Posted in Tax Fraud | Tagged | 1 Comment