Taxes on online poker?

[Arjun W]

Ok well I play poker online for a few years. Only about 1-2 hours/week or so. I deposited $50 once and then slowly got to $2000. Now I am trying to withdraw it.

But before I do that can anyone tell me if I have to pay tax on this? I heard that if you aren't earning more than 100k per year, then its considered "recreational winnings" instead of "income".

Living in: Canada,Ontario,Toronto

[Blu]

Technically, it's still income. You might want to get a complete history of your total deposits and subtract that amount from your entire account to find out what your actual gain was for the full year of 2007. You still have to report the winnings on a regular 1040 if I remember correctly, line 21. I'm sure you should be able to get a financial report from the online company that you play through for those specific dates. With recreational winnings, I think that only applies if you win less than $20/year; however, I'm not 100% sure of that.