Poker Winnings

Food & Drink, Events and Entertainment
1
Anyone know how poker winnings are taxed in Switzerland?

2
I asked the same question at the Swiss casino in Bad Ragaz.

The answer was simple, I don't claim the losses, they don't claim

the winnings.

If you take the jackpot home, you must provide personal information

but it will not be reported.

Cool!

3
Actually it depends.

Any casino cashouts over 5'000chf require you name and address. Any jackpots or cashouts over 15'000chf requires identification. This is simply for money laundering prevention and is not released to tax authorities.

Casino winnings won in a swiss-located casino (regardless of table games or poker machines) are not taxed as income, but maybe taxed as an asset if the amount is significant enough.

Casino winnings won outside of Switzerland may be taxed as income and as an asset. ( if they find out about it).

Unfortunately it appears that the Swiss Government is considering claiming their slice of the online gaming market. This is a shame as it goes against their admirable responsible gaming laws.

4
there is an option to declare your lottery wins in the ZRH & VD (at least) software.

i suspect it will fall under the same heading as gains in stocks/shares/FX that you have. if the win is big enough the state will want a piece of it )c;

5
So how much did you win?

6

Well, on Facebook, I'm at around $600K.

I think I can easily win around 2-3K at a time in one of the local casinos. I wouldn't want to win beyond getting noticed.

7
Have you played at the casinos before?

I personally think playing at a casino is not worth it unless you can afford to really splash the cash around and that it doesnt hurt if you loose.

I played at the casino in Vienna and bought in for Eur 100 as I wanted to play and have some fun. The guy next to me sat down with Eur 500 and just threw the money around. I did get upto Eur270 as they were not good players and ended up loosing it on a bad beat, meaning they can just afford to waste money and might get lucky every now and then.

I go to local clubs where you can buy in for a tourney between CHF 50-200 and win between CHF1000-5000. The standard of play is generally good and you can win a lot of money.

8
Do you play elsewhere or is facebook your only comparison?

9

Yes, I have. Its best to get in early on the tables before they get "broken in". Most everybody starts at about the same level. But later in the evening, some may have massively more, so it gets much more bloody to break in.