The Spanish tax authorities are using the online Hendon Mob database of live tournament results to check against players’ reported earnings, Spanish news site Poker-Red reports.
Poker winnings are subject to income tax in Spain and players are required to report poker income to the tax authorities. At least three top Spanish live tournament players have been investigated on the basis of their published results, according to yesterday’s article.
The Hendon Mob maintains one of the most comprehensive databases of live tournament results available free online. It hosts detailed player rankings, including all time money lists, annual results dating back to 1970, and player rankings broken down by tournament and country.
Topping the Spanish all time money list is Carlos Mortensen, now a Nevada resident, with nearly $11m in tournament winnings. Major titles include the WSOP Main Event in 2001 for $1.5m and a WPT Championship event in 2005 for almost $4m.
Two other players are listed with more than $1m in lifetime winnings, Raul Paez Corral and Juan Maceiras Lapido Jr. Other notables in the top 10 include Raul Mestre, Poker-Red co-owner, and Leo Margets, previously Lock Pro Elite, both with approximately $900k in lifetime winnings.
The early days of Spanish online regulation were confused as players were unsure whether they could net off their losses against winnings for tax purposes, an issue since clarified.
Online poker rooms provide data to the authorities, but only in aggregate form. PokerStars’ head of poker room management Steve Day explained at the time: “The data sent to our data vault in Spain is not summarized to provide per player gambling winnings but this information could be calculated from the data provided. We do not actively provide any information in respect to per player gambling winnings to the Spanish tax authorities.”
However, sites regulated in Spain are required to provide information on specific players if requested to do so by the regulator. Players are expected to keep meticulous records to ensure that the pay the correct amount of tax.
Last month, Swedish players were the subject of a crackdown on tax evasion by their tax authority, Skatteverket. In cooperation with the police, players’ homes were raided and computers confiscated. Officials told one player that the tax authorities had carried out “extensive research” using online results databases to provide preliminary evidence for the raids.
20/12/2012, 12:35 am