Tax taken out of wins??

[winbig]

This is directly from Pogo's T&C:

http://ivillage.pogo.com/prize/rules.do

All federal, state, provincial and/or local taxes/duties are the sole responsibility of the winner.

So, what makes them different than WW? It's not like Pogo is some clip shop. Their parent company is EA Sports, a multi-billion $ company...the same as WW:

FUN Technologies is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation. More Liberty Media Companies:
GSN | Halloween Costumes | Cherry Moon Farms | Discovery Store | ProFlowers | QVC | Secret Spoon | Shari's Berries | Zoombak

Why in the world WW forces the player to literally "claim" these winnings before cashing out and Pogo doesn't is beyond me.

[Nifty29]

I dont get it either winbig

I do know that Im not allowed to play for cash at Pogo for some reason - which is odd considering they are owned by the same people and offer pretty much the same thing.

Im going to ask them to refund all my deductions based on the fact I wouldnt have to pay tax at all on that level of income, but I have a better chance of winning the US election in November.....

[vinylweatherman]

Originally Posted by Nifty29

I dont get it either winbig

I do know that Im not allowed to play for cash at Pogo for some reason - which is odd considering they are owned by the same people and offer pretty much the same thing.

Im going to ask them to refund all my deductions based on the fact I wouldnt have to pay tax at all on that level of income, but I have a better chance of winning the US election in November.....

What I found out about Vegas, not that I won enough to try it, was that non-US residents could claim a refund by filling in some kind of form available through their local US Embassy, and the IRS would send them the deducted money. Also, if you had your passport with you at the time, the casino would pay the winnings gross anyway, as they could see you were not a local. This is something an online site cannot do, however, one form of attack would be to tell them that you HAVE sought independent tax advice, which was to get them to pay you back the 30% withhold for it to be declared on a local tax return. If there is a tax agreement between the two countries, this should not be a problem.

I also noticed this:-

The Site reserves the right to monitor the location from which you access the Site and to block access from any jurisdiction other than the U.S., or any U.S. jurisdiction in which participation is illegal or restricted.

And this makes me think they don't intend that non-US residents to play there at all, hence all these problems when a non-US resident does slip through.

Not only are we lucky Brits not charged tax on gambling wins, but we don't get taxed on competitions such as this either, provided we are not "professional compers", in the same way that it is possible for those who brag about being "professional gamblers" could suddenly find the Inland Revenue after them.