It has been reported that at a bail hearing for one of the defendants in the on-line poker criminal case a hard drive was delivered to the U.S. Atty by the defendant. If true one can speculate about the contents, but players from the U.S. who played in real money games should expect that the IRS will end up with the data.

So what does that mean, well if a player has unreported income from winnings on off-shore poker sites, the player should consider the following options: a) do nothing and hope the IRS doesn’t audit, b) figure out how much was won and lost by year and consider amending returns if there is a net win by year, c) if the player account balance in the offshore accounts was $10,000 or more in any year, consider filing FBAR’s for that year, d) If the unreported income is substantial, the e) consider making a “voluntary disclosure”. If the IRS or other investigative agencies start initiate an investigation then a voluntary disclosure will be rejected. A preliminary approval is possible before submission of a full voluntary disclosure.

Please see full article below for more information.