Las Vegas tax consultant Russ Fox dampened some of the big money hype around the recently concluded World Series of Poker main event this week, commenting on his blog that US winners take a significant tax hit from the IRS.
In an interesting post, Fox estimates that Greg Merson’s first prize of $8.53 million will be reduced to just $4,838,327 after he’s coughed up $3,693,526 in federal and state taxes.
Fox says that Merson faces a tax hit that includes self-employment tax ($247,424), state income tax to Maryland ($469,252) and federal income tax ($2,976,850).
Runner up Jesse Sylvia’s $5,295,149 pay check will attract a tax debit of around $2 million, Fox calculates, part of an estimated $10 million the US tax authorities will ‘win’ from the mainly US players around this week’s WSOP main event final table.
By contrast, the only foreigner on the table, Hungarian player Andras Koroknai, will keep most of his $1.6 million prize.