You’re tax professionals. You don’t need me to tell you that the money you are going to win in the virtual office pool on “the big game” is taxable income. You also don’t need me to tell you can’t net your winnings with the cost of the wager. You don’t, right? Most of the rules for reporting gambling income and deducting gambling losses for individuals are well understood with the possible exception of the session rules for slot machine play. I’m not going there—well, not in this article. This article is going to explore the nuances of tax optimization for people who have decided to go all in and turn their leisure time activities into a job.
Lessons Learned from the Tax Court: What’s at Stake?
Matt Metras, EA
Astute readers of this publication may recognize that I frequently write on Cryptocurrency and also on Tax Court cases. It feels like Christmas to me to be able to write about a tax court case about crypto. This is only the Third Tax court case to even mention crypto, and the first to look at the underlying principles of taxation. (The other two were about including crypto assets in a CDP hearing and a frivolous tax protester argument). Today’s case, Paschall v. Commissioner, is about the taxation of staking income.
