While playing the watch tourney this eve I was joking that I didnt want to gain points I wanted to sell a watch. Someone said you could get the watch for 1000$ on e bay, I dont know if thats true. It was mentioned, on the chat, the taxes were about same as actual value of watch when you use Club UBT value. Later on another table I jokingly mentioned it and a player said you could gather info off e bay etc to prove the worth to IRS. This would seem to be very important when playing club ubt. The Club 10 99s you at a high price then you have to talk it down for IRS. This would seem to open the door to investigative audit. If you are doing your other taxes perfectly audits OK :laugh:
I remember a similar thread to this over at LVA months ago, Outcome was that you can put in a 'ebay type value' to the item to the IRS.
Jean Scott ("Frugal Gambler") has a book out on gambling and taxes. I think she's got the second edition out now, or else it's close to it. Both were written with the help of a tax accountant who is very familiar with gambling issues. That's the sort of thing she would tackle. Don't know if Ken's got it/them available here, but you can find it/them at the LVA site. I remember hearing a story some time ago about a slot player who won a car from a casino. The car had been sitting there so long that it was a couple of years old by the time it was given away. The casino either 1099'ed or W2G'ed the player for the full sticker price, that person fought back by claiming that it was a 2-year-old car, and won. Wish I could be more specific........
The problem here is knowing exactly how to "lower" the value of the watch. Also, my accountant is a guru at working write offs of capital expenditures and such for the farming industry. I can almost, without asking, guarantee he would have to spend time, time=$, figuring out how to save the money. This might mean its better to just pay the the tax suggested retail price. It is most important that the fudging not red flag your business or SS# for audit. BTW, I dont see the "Ice Tek QUINTEMPO I Watch" for a grand on ebay. about $3300 is the only action I see. But, my guess is I could sell it for under $2000......
Fair Market Value I'm not a tax expert...I'd just do a search (yahoo/google) on the prize listed (exact name) and you can usually come up with many places that sell the same product at a lower price than UBT has listed as their value. I would use this documentation as my prize value. Is the $ difference is worth the trouble/hassle? That's up to the individual. http://contests.about.com/od/taxesfinances/ht/FMVvsARV.htm
Ebay Prices I'm not a watch or tax expert, but having bought and sold on Ebay since 1999, with over 3000 transactions, I know that subject pretty well. If you're going to use Ebay for pricing keep in mind the following: 1. You'll need to "watch" the item you're interested in until the very end of the auction. Many times an item may only have one bid until 6 secs. before the end of auction and end up with 20 bids. You will have to sign up with Ebay so that you can have your own "My Ebay" page to watch the items. 2. You'll need to search for said item over a period of time. One week there may be none and the next a dozen. One thing is for sure, you can find absolutely anything and everything for sale on Ebay. 3. There's always some eager beaver willing to pay 10 times what the exact same item has been selling for. 4. There's more to know but I've been up all night playing Blackjack at my local casino and am lucky I could count to four at this point.
Mick, thanks for the comment. Mace said in an earlier post that the E Bay prices dont work when reasoning with IRS. I havent won any good prizes like I POD Touch( i would love to win the watch and sell it-this is where thise scenario would be most important) only cash like prizes. So I guess at this point I dont have to worry about talking the values down. With cash winnings you know the value, it is certain. One interesting tid bit. It seems ClubUBT wants cruise winners to have cruise forms in by 12-14. My last request for cash from ClubUBT wouldnt let me choose the cash but also required I claim all prizes including the cruise. Today it says my cash and cruise have been awarded. So, my guess is my 1099 will include 2000$ for the cruise win and I will be taxed for the win. This tends to tell me the cruise will sail, or the chips may hit the fan.
