Originally Posted by
SLaPiNFuNK
I had a tax year where my former tax guy neglected to look up my w2g's that were reported to the IRS. I didn't keep track and had 120K of unreported w2g's that year.
Long story short, we filed, reported my losses against the w2g's I actually had. Year later I got a bill for something like 36K plus interest and penalty. Even though my win loss statements did not show a profit, they still hit me for the full taxable amount on the wins even though they were not actually "wins." Tax people don't understand how gambling works. Because I didn't account for those w2g's and report the appropriate losses against them, I got stuck paying the bill...
That tax guy really fucked me... Now I make sure I get a report from the IRS before filing my taxes...
If it was in the past 3 years, you still have a chance to go back and amend it, and get the IRS to send you the money.
Calling the IRS, while sometimes frustrating to get through, is also effective. They have real accountants answering the phone, and are empowered to help you. In every telephone correspondence I've had with them, I've been impressed, and I've gotten various issues solved much quicker than trying to write back and forth.
You can also get them to forgive interest/penalties if you have a reasonable story, and are willing to pay up otherwise. In fact, I advised someone else recently (a friend not in poker/gambling), who didn't know an obscure tax law, and ended up underpaying. He got hit with interest/penalty, and I told him to call the IRS, explain the circumstances, offer to fully correct the error, and ask for the penalty/interest to be waived. They agreed.