After the infamous Black Friday events, the vast majority of US poker players migrated to Canada. Some of them received a residence permit, some changed their citizenship to Canadian, and some were simply content with the status of a resident.
Canada is of course a beautiful country, and the general price level is lower than the American one. That’s just the root cause of the migration of American poker players is the attitude of the Canadian authorities towards gambling. Playing any games of chance has never been considered by the executive and fiscal authorities of Canada as a reality that can serve as a permanent source of income for the player. Even gambling operators that worked in Canada, referring to its legislative acts, quite officially could not pay some taxes on income from gambling. What can we say about poker players.
Even the professional poker player was treated more than favorably by Canadian law and the Canadian tax authorities. As a poker pro, you could even not have Canadian citizenship, but simply be a Canadian resident in order to pay no taxes on your poker winnings at all. It is for this reason that Phil Garfold, Daniel Negreanu, Douglas Polk and many other professional poker players became “Canadian poker players”. They became, because they were not absolutely reasonably afraid that they would one day receive a “letter of happiness” from the tax office.
Poker is a gambling game in Canada. Any gambling winnings are not subject to income tax in Canada, since, according to the definition of Canadian law, gambling winnings cannot serve as a source of permanent income for individuals. Winnings in any gambling up to $44,000 CAD were never even considered by the Canadian tax authorities as income of individuals that can be brought under the taxable base.
The situation with the attitude of the Canadian authorities towards gambling began to change this year. A litmus test is perhaps the February decision of the Canadian Court of Appeal in the so-called “tip case”. Casino dealer Cheng Xia has filed an appeal in a federal Canadian court against the decision of the previous court. The casino dealer wanted to challenge the decision of the tax inspector, who ordered him to pay taxes on tips received from customers during the work. The dealer insisted that his tips were gambling income and therefore should not be taxed. The decision of the Court of Appeal disappointed him. The judge took the side of the tax authority, ruling that the dealer’s tip is a permanent source of income that he received as a result of his professional activities and, accordingly, should be taxed on personal income.
CRA vs Jonathan Duhamel
The star of professional poker player Jonathan Duhamel flared up in the already distant 2010. He gained worldwide fame by winning the Main Event of the World Series of Poker (2010 WSOP Main Event). For winning that tournament, he received $8,944,310 in prize money.
In the middle of this year, the Canada Revenue Agency filed a tax claim against Jonathan Duhamel for 2010-2012. In total, the CRA requires him to pay $1,219,114 in taxes for this three-year tax period. Jonathan Duhamel’s chargeable amount is CRA’s assessed taxes on his 2010-2012 poker winnings (including winnings in the 2010 WSOP Main Event).