Page 4 of 4 FirstFirst 1234
Results 61 to 73 of 73

Thread: Locals Casinos Free Play Strategy -- do you have one?

  1. #61
    Originally Posted by Rob.Singer View Post
    Alan, I've got a little time so I'll give you more info on how I didn't need to pay taxes on any of my wiining as a professional gambler for the 11 years I did it. Of course, it's a different scenario since retiring from filing schedule C in each of those years, but I still pay zero taxes on my modest net winnings.

    You're familiar with filing as a business. I was in business for myself as an author/writer, gambling advisor, and as a professional vp player. And as a filier of this status, I deducted a portion of my house in Phx., my home in Hawaii, and my apt. in Phx. Why & how? Because I lived, ate, slept and breathed vp during those years, and aside from my renting a car every day of the year each year that I deducted, along with all the gas and some insurance, whenever I was at a home I'd deduct travel there, food, dinners out even if I brought up gambling for an instant or for hours, etc. etc. etc. Take my wife to dinner and discuss my upcoming schedule for my travel to Nevada for the next week? Deductible. Buy groceries that helped keep me going all those endless hours at the computer writing? Deductible. I had some people I trained over to my house in Phx., and I liked to entertain them at the pool & spa while we talked "business". Bottom line, much of the expenses in my life were deductable legally, and my audits supported that. Outsiders may see this as a stretch, but they are all loophole-safe. My son-in-law also works for the IRS as a manager/Agent, and I made sure I followed the guidelines as required, as far along the edge as some of my deductions may have been.
    You've got me scratching my head over a lot of these "deductions" Rob. I have a business and I discuss business and do business over dinner and while eating and while in my car but I must say I am not as "loose" about what I claim as a deductible expense.

    Frankly, I have an office in my home and I don't deduct it. Why? Because my office in my home is not exclusive to my business. I sometimes conduct business in my home, via email and writing scripts, while eating at my desk. Do I deduct the cost of the food I am eating at my desk while writing a script or planning a show? No, I don't.

    I discuss my upcoming TV shooting schedule when I am out to dinner with a friend or my wife and problems I have with a client and mentioning that I have a new client and I might ask "what do you think about this product?" Does that make it a "business meal" and worthy of a deduction? I don't think so.

    When I am shooting an Infomercial and we drive 240 miles in a day going from location to location, yes, we deduct those miles. But my car is also used for personal use and so my car is not a business expense. The business miles are a business expense.

    I write an article here about changes I saw at Rincon. Does that make the trip to Rincon a deductible expense? In your eyes, perhaps. Not to me.

  2. #62
    Stop being so naive, Alan. Singer made all that stuff up because you backed him into a corner. He had no choice but to double down on his previous lies. Anyone who knows anything about taxes knows deducting groceries is completely ridiculous. And that is just for starters. Remember, all he had was that small apartment according to AZ state records.

    He would have failed an audit without a doubt.

  3. #63
    I feel so close to you and the missus arci, that I'm looking at your bookshelf of lies and getting my hands around just how I might legally be able to deduct all those glorious medical expenses you're experiencing

    Alan: opinions vary. When you're in business for yourself, you should deduct anything & everything related no matter how remotely, to what your end product or service is. Stretch it, stretch it, stretch it. The Gov't. is not your friend. Even those groceries arci can't figure out--they're no different than writing off a business meal out, and the IRS even liked that more because I explained how much cheaper it was sitting at the computer on video chats etc. at a home than running out to expensive meals, as long as I had the receipts and did not deduct things like dish detergent, bug spray, car wax, etc. I was EXTREMELY loose with my deductions and the system worked like it should when you put the proper effort into it. Some may be too timid to go this far, like you probably are, and others may be too inexperienced, jealous & ignorant, like arci. But I also had free help that was invaluable.
    Last edited by Rob.Singer; 08-02-2013 at 07:12 PM.

  4. #64
    Rob, I wouldn't be surprised if you told me that you deducted a bottle of aspirin as a business expense (instead of a medical expense subject to a percentage of your adjusted gross income). Do you deduct your aspirin as a business expense also?

  5. #65
    I did not.

    As for these days, there's a rule that we all know about: gambling losses can be deducted up to the amount claimed as won. All you need is for your contemporaneous gambling log to support that. There is no other record--such as those meaningless casino won/loss letters that offer zero proof as to whether or not you played at times without a card or played table games, live poker, and/or bet on sports unidentified--that the IRS cares more about.

    As far as how I do it....I can't remember off hand. But I DO know my first responsibility as a subject under the Obama corrupt kingdom, is to send as much of my money to the Gov't. as possible, so the country's slugs, hippies, minorities, potheads, queers, and lifelong students can continue getting their monthly handouts.
    Last edited by Rob.Singer; 08-02-2013 at 07:58 PM.

  6. #66
    Well, Rob, your preaching aside, I think you should go back and amend all of your previous returns and include aspirin. You seemed to have missed that one.

  7. #67
    The only deduction I question is he took depreciation on Arci!!!






    For those that`are "humor" challenged---you see Rob always says he owns Arci. So if he owns him he can depreciate----oh never mind
    Last edited by regnis; 08-02-2013 at 08:32 PM.

  8. #68
    That's funny regnis But I already get more than my share of value from him by the way he's so aware of the karma surrounding his endless lies about me--and him for that matter. What goes around always comes around, and if he ever stopped to think about how his hatred & envy is way more than offset by knowing how his life has been reduced to daily lengthy Internet sessions while his wife endlessly suffers and he's stuck dealing and putting up with it all, it has a nicely calming effect on this end. And actually, I'm hoping for some improvement, so that next summer when we stop by for a visit, he won't still be on his knees any more and we might be able to go out for a bowling foursome.

  9. #69
    One can see the projections from speedo in his comment. He is obviously not very happy with his domestic situation. He envies my ability to profit from gambling, excel at bowling and play golf at a high level. He tries to make people believe he is happy in his trailer after bragging/lying for years about living in a big house. The contradictions in his world are numerous.

    It's almost as funny as a person claiming they can deduct grocery bills from their taxes.

  10. #70
    ....that's funny too, as we get ready to head up to the lake for an afternoon of boating with friends who brought their boat from SF, then we're taking them to dinner at the Lone Eagle Grille on the lake at the Hyatt in Incline. Of course, it was a tough choice between that....and staying home at the computer all day while applying salve, popping pills, making sure the cupboard has plenty of sugar-free treats, then for the BIG event of the day: bringing home some mashed potatoes from KFC! ROTFLMFAO!!! The more the poor guy builds up such lame things as BOWLING & GOLF, you know the uppercut I threw just keeps resonating thru his mind. WOW!

    Be back tomorrow--Squeak....squeak!
    Last edited by Rob.Singer; 08-03-2013 at 11:47 AM.

  11. #71
    Alan, if I were you, I would deduct the Rincon trips, even if you are on Caesars'/Harrah's payroll in some form. I don't see a problem with deducting the Rincon trips. Also, if you don't mind handling an audit, which "home office" claims often generate, I don't see why you don't put desks in two different rooms and claim the one room as an "exclusive business" square footage. These deductions shouldn't be a problem, as long as you keep cool during audits. My understanding is that you can't use portable screens in the middle of a space to wall off "exclusive business" footage. You need to define the footage with actual doorways and such. You could have desks on two sides of the same wall near a doorway, separated by that wall, and just transfer a computer from desk to desk to move from "business space" to "non-business space." A desk and an extension cord are easy and cheap enough to provide you with a legitimate deduction.

  12. #72
    I'd like to take these one at a time.

    Originally Posted by redietz View Post
    Alan, if I were you, I would deduct the Rincon trips, even if you are on Caesars'/Harrah's payroll in some form. I don't see a problem with deducting the Rincon trips.
    I am not on Caesars payroll. I have done consulting work for some of the Vegas casino companies but Caesars is not one of them. The Rincon trips are not a business expense, even if I do get information that I share in an article. I have had TV clients near Rincon and those trips are tax deductible and allowed me to make a side trip to Rincon on a couple of occasions but the only part of the mileage that was deducted is the mileage to the client, and not the additional mileage to Rincon. The same is true when I went to Vegas to shoot or do work for a client there and made a side trip to Caesars. I do what I feel is the right thing to do. I guess you could say I don't stretch it.

    Originally Posted by redietz View Post
    Also, if you don't mind handling an audit, which "home office" claims often generate, I don't see why you don't put desks in two different rooms and claim the one room as an "exclusive business" square footage. These deductions shouldn't be a problem, as long as you keep cool during audits. My understanding is that you can't use portable screens in the middle of a space to wall off "exclusive business" footage. You need to define the footage with actual doorways and such. You could have desks on two sides of the same wall near a doorway, separated by that wall, and just transfer a computer from desk to desk to move from "business space" to "non-business space." A desk and an extension cord are easy and cheap enough to provide you with a legitimate deduction.
    I have been through audits. In fact, I went through a TCMP audit several years ago -- the mother of all audits. I was scheduled to be in there for a minimum of four hours, but after 35 minutes from the moment I walked in, I walked out and the auditor thanked me for being so well organized and I left with NO change. I have no reason to fear an audit.

    The reality is my "office" is not exclusive. My "office" in my home is no more than my desk area. I have clothes in a closet, I have a dresser and a nightstand with more clothing and household items, my wife does her arts and crafts sometimes in the "office" (hobby, not a business) so it would be inappropriate to deduct a "home office." If you want to take the charges, go ahead. I don't think it's appropriate. And even if I did, the "savings" would be minimal. I don't even want to bother figuring the square footage for deducting the desk space which I could do and legally deduct if I wanted to.

    A bigger concern for me is remembering to write down my car mileage every day and to remember to note what each trip was for, and to keep track of all of the various charges I face for producing the TV shows and Infomercials -- everything from AA batteries, all the way up to paying for "closed captioning" which is a weekly expense, and then the charges by the TV stations for actual air time and couriers and video tape and hard-drives. Closed captioning alone costs me about $500 per week just for my weekly show and doesn't include the additional expenses for all of the Infomercials I produce during the year.

    Should I deduct trips to Rincon when I check up on what video poker they have? Why bother?

  13. #73
    Redietz is generally correct that deducting for home office--or home offices, in my case--tends to generate an audit. My son-in-law confirmed this year's ago, but he did say it mostly happens to people who claim it but do not file schedule C. In my 11 years filing as a business, I've had 3 full-up sit down audits, and one was a multi-year 3-year audit. I do not believe it was the home offices deductions that triggered them however. Each seemed to be centered around me being a professional gambler, which the Ogden then Az. audit squads couldn't quite figure out what that meant. On the multi-year they had to consult with the LV office. And Allan, I agree there is no fear in having an audit when you are sure you have stayed in bounds, and if you have the evidence and good enuf records for them to review. With help, I learned where and how to stretch everything, and I did just that. Why give up more of your wages to the Gov't. than you are required to give? We should all learn our tax lessons from the likes of GE, who went out and hired a thousand former IRS employees to do their taxes for just this purpose.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •