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  Between January 1st and April 15th the citizens of the United States get a collective enema called income tax. It is referred to in this manner because something fairly uncomfortable, in this case IRS paperwork goes in, and stuff comes out - in the case of income taxes this means cash. We won't even go into the details of the actual procedure. For years tournament casino poker players chuckled while filling out the forms, content that the winnings they stuffed under their mattresses were safe from the little men from the tax office. That is no longer the case.



  As of March 4th, 2008 casinos that reside within the United States will be mandated to report tournament winnings of over $5000 to the IRS. This means somebody who wins over that amount cannot hide the money from the tax collectors. If they see that a casino has reported that somebody has won $10,000, and the person who won that money has carelessly omitted that amount from their yearly tax reporting, then the IRS is going to have some questions for the tax payer. Under current law those questions can legally involve waterboarding or being forced to watch Hillary Clinton cry during an interview. Ok, this was a joke, but you get the point.



  This change to the tax law is compromise between the IRS and the casino industry that would have made the casino itself responsible for withholding 25% of winning over that $5000 threshold. Obviously putting a casino in the position of being a default tax collector opens the door for the kind of conflict of interests that landed Capone in Alcatraz.



  We are sure that most poker players would like to go back to the days when they could stuff their winnings in an old boot and pretend they weren't there when tax day comes, but that time is long gone. Hopefully everyone has the records straight. April 15th isn't far away.