Poker and Taxes
Tax his land, tax his wage,
Tax his bed in which he lays.
Tax his tractor, tax his mule,
Teach him taxes is the rule.
Tax his cow, tax his goat,
Tax his pants, tax his coat.
Tax his ties, tax his shirts,
Tax his work, tax his dirt.
Tax his chew, tax his smoke,
Teach him taxes are no joke.
Tax his car, tax his grass,
Tax the roads he must pass.
Tax his food, tax his drink,
Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his sodas, tax his beers,
If he cries, tax his tears.
Tax his bills, tax his gas,
Tax his notes, tax his cash.
Tax him good and let him know
That after taxes, he has no dough.
If he hollers, tax him more,
Tax him until he’s good and sore.
Tax his coffin, tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he lays.
Put these words upon his tomb,
“Taxes drove me to my doom!”
And when he’s gone, we won’t relax,
We’ll still be after the inheritance tax.
Tax is the bane of life! It is inevitable as the powerful need money to maintain their power. If that need to maintain power is also to make sure you are safe then so be it.
As a poker player you are taxed because you need to play poker. You could get out of paying tax but all that means is you have to provide your own food and drink and you also have to shuffle and deal your own cards. Well that is definitely of the list as poker players hate dealing and monitoring the play in a fair manner. Hence, in all the best games there will be a dealer and waitress/barman.
As a casino operator provides the services we poker players hate to do ourselves they will want a profit to make it worth their while and so commission/rake/tax was developed. Now, with the state being a dominant force they want to tax the casino but in the UK they will not tax profits from developers. Why, well could you imaging how much losses you could have written off?
That is why if there is going to be a tax on poker by the state it will be on the casino owners. With online poker we now have the unusual situation in which the USA and Sweden are dead against raising taxes from the online poker site because they are illegal by the terms of their law, although the game itself is not illegal!
This has led to organisation such as the European Union suing Sweden for restriction of goods and services which they are not allowed to restrict. Considering some of the biggest online poker players are from Sweden this is a very weird situation. How did these Swedish superstar manage to get round the online poker embargo?
In the end poker players will always get taxed for playing poker. Whether it is for service or to keep the ruling class in the lifestyle they have become accustomed too is neither here or there. It is a question of pay up and shut up.