http://www.taxabletalk.com/ Taxable Talk looks at taxes (and the politics behind taxes) from the view of a Southern California tax preparer. en-us 2008-06-25T01:06+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1214359112.shtml Question 1.... Russ 2008-06-25T01:06+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1212887381.shtml The TaxProf Blog alerted me to an interesting Tax Court case decided earlier this week. Once again the Court looked at whether or not an individual can be a professional... Russ 2008-06-08T01:06+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1206722209.shtml Nevada's constitution exempts food for human consumption. The Nevada Department of Taxation believed that Use Tax was owed on meals that were given out free of charge (either to employees or... Russ 2008-03-28T16:03+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1206323112.shtml We get mail. Now, I don't answer all of it, but this weekend I got quite a bit of interesting email. A reader asks,... Russ 2008-03-24T01:03+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1204774452.shtml I've been asked by some of my gambling clients about ePassporte, an e-wallet that's now in widespread use. The question that has arisen is whether ePassporte is a foreign bank... Russ 2008-03-06T03:03+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1203540958.shtml A New Jersey couple frequented Atlantic City, and enjoyed playing the slot machines. In 2004, they were "lucky" enough to win $208,420 in jackpots for which they received W-2Gs. The couple,... Russ 2008-02-20T20:02+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1203113834.shtml And that's not a good thing.... Russ 2008-02-15T22:02+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1202356776.shtml The Swedish tax agency, Skatteverket, is targeting online poker players and affiliates. Skatteverket uses an online "spider," or web crawler, to find web sites that appear to be income producing. They... Russ 2008-02-07T03:02+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1201212605.shtml Today the Tax Court looked at the case of a "pathological gambler." This isn't a problem gambler. As the Court noted,... Russ 2008-01-24T22:01+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1198710939.shtml The Tax Court looked at another gambler's attempt to write off substantial gambling losses. She claimed a losing year, but the IRS felt otherwise. Did she really have gambling losses,... Russ 2007-12-26T23:12+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1198018566.shtml I have had several individuals request that I repost an article that originally appeared on TwoPlusTwo.com's Internet Magazine. Without further ado, here is the article that first appeared in the... Russ 2007-12-18T22:12+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1196049649.shtml Several months ago, I participated in a phone form on the FBAR program (Foreign Bank Account Rreporting); generally, if you have a foreign bank account with $10,000 or more in it... Russ 2007-11-26T04:11+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1195515942.shtml Can a woman who owns and operates a trucking business also be considered a professional gambler? That's what the Tax Court had to decide.... Russ 2007-11-19T23:11+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1193096471.shtml In March 2006, I wrote about Renato Medina, the principal owner of Lucky Chance's. Lucky Chance's is a cardroom located in Colma, just south of San Francisco. Mr. Medina... Russ 2007-10-22T23:10+00:00 http://www.taxabletalk.com/posts/1192839584.shtml As I reported earlier, the IRS has revisited Revenue Procedure 2007-57, which would have required withholding on all poker tournament payouts of more than $5,000. I had been told by someone... Russ 2007-10-20T00:10+00:00