It was recently reported that the group Skatteverket, the tax authority in Sweden and has decided to get tough with Swedish poker players. The group is now demanding poker pros to fully disclose their poker winnings from online poker sites that are located outside of the European Economic Area. Winnings must be reported from a time frame of 2008 to 20011.
Skatteverket sent out a letter which read:
“[We have] obtained information that you have played poker in one or more Internet sites based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) for the period 2008-2011. Please submit bank statements or similar documents from any internet site where you had the bankroll for the period 2008-2011.”
The letter is very specific and names online poker sites such as PokerStars, Absolute Poker, Bodog and Full Tilt Poker. Players have been asked to report their screen names for such sites and winnings from live tournaments have been requested as well if they fall outside of the European Economic Area.
The Serious Fraud Office launched raids, which were unannounced, on several players’ homes across Sweden. Computers were confiscated as well as mobile phones from many players’ homes. The tax authority is also looking for financial statements which are connected to online poker such as bank statements, credit card statements, PayPal and other E-Wallet information.
So now, Sweden’s poker players are going to have to put up with such raids as well as tax issues. The Skatteverket group has been criticized in the past for the tax system. The group originally based their taxes on individual hands and now they have changed the process to include wins as well as losses over the year period. The tax is now calculated based on each site and losses from one site are not affected by losses from another site.
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