Bob Dancer's LVA Column - 16 FEB 2016
Lifetime Winnings
http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/bob_dancer/2016/0216.cfm
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If you're doing the cash method of accounting, stuff counts when it gets converted to cash.
Cash method of accounting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_method_of_accounting
Cash method of accounting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_method_of_accounting The cash method of accounting, also known as cash-basis accounting, cash receipts and disbursements method of accounting or cash accounting (the EU VAT directive vocabulary Article 226) records revenue when cash is received, and expens...
View on en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_method_of_accounting
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Toward the end of Bob's column this week, he asks (re the annual vpFREE profit/loss poll), "Is this poll a good exercise to go through?".
I have no arguments with the column, still I found myself wondering if Bob asked himself if this subject for a column was, itself, "a good exercise"?
Then it dawned on me that any discussion on that note is fruitless ... it's just not interesting 
---In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, <vpfree3355@...> wrote :
Bob Dancer's LVA Column - 16 FEB 2016
Lifetime Winnings
http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/bob_dancer/2016/0216.cfm
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Bob wrote: "That may well be the way you keep score. What confidence do you have that others keep the score the same way?"
Perhaps there should be a poll: What method of accounting do you use to report your gambling winnings to the IRS? If you just have a tax preparer do the work, most likely they are using the cash method.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Income that is "constructively received" is considered income for a cash
basis taxpayer.
From: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vpF…@…com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 12:07 PM
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [vpFREE] Re: Bob Dancer's LVA Column - 16 FEB 2016
If you're doing the cash method of accounting, stuff counts when it gets
converted to cash.
Cash method of accounting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_method_of_accounting
Cash method of accounting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_method_of_accounting The cash method of
accounting, also known as cash-basis accounting, cash receipts and
disbursements method of accounting or cash accounting (the EU VAT directive
vocabulary Article 226) records revenue when cash is received, and expens...
View on en.wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_method_of_accounting
Preview by Yahoo
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Hope it's clear that I think this discussion went off the rails from the start ...
However, speaking as an accountant/financial analyst, I'm hard pressed to imagine under what circumstances accrual accounting would be appropriate reporting of gambling activity for taxes.
And, FWIW, in any case, my informed guess is that receipt of gift cards qualifies for accounting as a cash equivalent.
Of course, I've little doubt that that there are vast disparities between how people actually reporting their gaming activity ("keep score") and the actual IRS guidance.
---In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, <nightoftheiguana2000@...> wrote :
Bob wrote: "That may well be the way you keep score. What confidence do you have that others keep the score the same way?"
Perhaps there should be a poll: What method of accounting do you use to report your gambling winnings to the IRS? If you just have a tax preparer do the work, most likely they are using the cash method.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]