Postby wamstax » Fri Dec 20, 2013 1:24 am
Having dealt with many a betting "story" on both sides of the fence the answer to this is only tell the truth about your gambling results and do not forget the losses you made to get those overstated gambling winnings.
Now I am not prejudging matters in any way BUT my experience is that unless an individual is undertaking gambling as a means of a living the chances are that overall the individual will make losses.
Of course if you do "gamble professionally" for a living the chances are that HMRC will succeed in taxing your profits but if you are merely a punter then your losses will not be allowable in arriving at your overall tax liabilities.
Successful gamblers will have no difficulty in evidencing their performance and you would be surprised what records can be available to a decent investigator who is seeking to destroy your alleged large unexpected gambling winnings. Anecdotally, it is not impossible of course that once you lead the investigator into the fact that you gamble he/she will uncover facts you never thought were available to show all the undeclared cash you didn't tell them about that you lost in getting your overstated wins.
The key in all this is be realistic as straying from the truth or exaggerating wins can lead to HMRC thinking that not only was your understating taxable income deliberate - getting you heavier penalties - they might also suggest that your straying from the truth also revealed your efforts to make it "deliberate AND concealed".
Full disclosure is I am afraid the only cost effective way to go forward in these sort of situation and don't remember your ODD SUCCESS but forget about all your disappointments .
regards and hope this helps
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