Home / Poker News January 2011 / Isildur1’s tax woes
Isildur1’s tax woes
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2011-01-24 12:13
Isildur1, now known under his real name Viktor Blom, should have known that revealing his identity and tossing his mystery man image into the garbage bin would have further reaching consequences than he could anticipate before making the move. He definitely lost quite a bit simply by destroying the image that so many online players and poker fans world over grew to like. He is now about to lose tons more, this time to the Swedish financial system, which is claiming its share of not only his
online poker winnings but apparently of his losses as well. Now that his real identity was found out and it was confirmed that he was indeed a Swedish citizen, the Swedish IRS got him in their crosshairs.
Apparently one of the main reasons why he didn't reveal his identity sooner was the very fact that he knew the legal situation regarding online poker in his home country. Now that he moved to London, he probably felt it was safe to come out.
How much does he owe to Sweden in taxes though? Apparently a massive $149 million. How could he owe that much? Simple: according to Swedish law, online poker winnings are taxable and so are online poker losses, if they occur at a poker room which does not operate under an EU license. Needless to say,
Full Tilt Poker is exactly one such room.
The fact that he’s currently living in London – where online poker revenue is not taxed – may offer Blom shelter from the long arm of the Swedish law, but whether or not that will indeed be the case is not yet known.
Erik Boman, representative of the Swedish Tax Agency said that while he (and thus implicitly the entity he represents) was aware of Isildur1’s past Full Tilt antics, he couldn’t offer details on whether or not a case had been opened against Blom.
