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Considering that most taxing authorities, if not all, won't even accept credit cards unless you go through a service that allows them to have the fee taken from the payer rather than the payee, I don't understand why they are accepting the risk of the market fluctuation on virtual currency.

It would be hard to find RD in Brasil.

May we all unite with joy for our freedom.......... But... be safe when grilling your food....

PIA isn't new - it's been around for years as I'm a subscriber. I did a $79 for 3 years deal last time. I use a VPN because my client who works at the FBI, my nephew who works at Apple in Cupertino and a firm I work with said to do it. Plus my wife is required to use a VPN 100% of the time for work at a major University. It slows my speed down from about 200mb to 170mb but upload drops to 20mb. Neither of those impact my life at all. The primary problem is that RingCentral won't let you log into your administration accounts via the VPN. I can still run all my phone calls through them while on the VPN. I've used Drake, TaxWise and ATX on the VPN and never had a problem. My client who works for the FBI said you should assume anything that is "encypted" has been hacked. While I use encryption for PDF files, he doesn't allow me to do that with his files. My nephew at Apple smiled when I told him this and said it was a rather safe assumption to make. His opinion was encryption is safer than unencrypted but it's still not safe. I've had multiple people tell me the document services that CPAs love to use aren't really much safer than just emailing the documents. Basically if someone is smart enough to get your emails, they are smart enough to figure out how to get around the encryption.

Thank you for the detail, DANRVAN! Client ("the mark") was following buy and sell instructions of two other "investor friends" (who were also leading him on and enticing him to put more money into his Foreign Currency Exchange Account) in a practice the internet apparently refers to as "Fattening and then Butchering the Pig" (gee, how nice the scammers from Asia are!) But Client does have detail of his MetaTrader5 account, and of his buying and selling and contribution history. ForEx, is short for Foreign Exchange or Foreign Currency Trading. This just happened the other day to Client, so this would be an issue on the 2022 income tax return.

However, as explained in RR 2009-9. Ponzi scheme type of losses are still deductible since they are not subject to the disallowance of sec 165(h)(5)(A) for the years 2018-2025. Personal theft losses which are disallowed fall under sect 165(c)(3). Since Ponzi losses result from a profit motive transaction (other than from a trade or business) they fall under sect 165(C)(2) and are not subject to the limitations of sect 165(h) so they are still deductible as an itemized deduction. You should also be aware of the safe harbor under Rev Proc 2009-20.

It is a gray area and depends on facts and circumstances. If the client went through a broker it would help his case. Take a look at RR 2009-9.

The only time I use a VPN is when I'm traveling and using free hotel WiFi which for me isn't that often. I used Mullvad VPN during a recent trip to Boston, spent less than $6 for the month, and cancelled the service when I got back home. I have never had issues connecting to any websites but it is an extra server to route all of your traffic through, so it can potentially be slower. To directly answer your question, nope, I haven't heard of PIA. In my opinion, the main benefits of using a VPN are privacy related. You can keep your browsing from your ISP because all they see is encrypted traffic between sites and the VPN server. If you don't trust your ISP to not sell your metadata to the highest bidder, then a VPN is a good way to avoid that. Just make sure to pick a trustworthy VPN provider because they're the ones who will have that data instead of your ISP. In terms of general security, most of the web now uses HTTPS anyway, so all of that traffic is already encrypted and secure. Transmitting things like credit cards and passwords isn't improved by using a VPN. Some VPN providers have additional security measures that protect you from visiting harmful sites or downloading harmful files, but a little common sense about those things is a lot more effective. There are some things that I think should be higher priority for online security: Don't reuse your passwords. Create secure passwords and use a password manager to remember them for you. Even though it's a pain sometimes, use 2 Factor Authentication wherever it's supported. The type that uses an Authenticator app (Authy, Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator, etc) is better than relying on text messages, but the text messages are a lot better than a username/password alone. If privacy is your main concern, install an ad blocker extension for your browser. uBlock Origin is a good example. An unbelievable amount of tracking happens as you browse the web, and there's a lot of money in knowing who you are as an ad target. A VPN generally doesn't do anything about this, because it's all happening in your browser which is communicating with the site you're visiting. Encrypting the traffic through a VPN only means it's being securely sent directly to Facebook, for example. An ad blocker will shut down most of that tracking and keep it from being shared with the sites you're visiting. EDIT: I didn't realize this before, but Mullvad VPN, and probably other VPN providers include ad blocking and anti-tracking features which would be similar to what uBlock Origin does. uBlock Origin is free, though.

Well, I don't who raised these people, but one way to guarantee I don't respond is to direct me to kindly familiarize myself with anything. Familiarize yourself with this: Not today, Satan.

I'm absolutely convinced that poorly written sentences are intentional in these email scams. The scammer is looking for people who don't pay close attention or even those whose understanding of grammar is not the best. They make the best victims.

This crap is another reason that I won't take clients from the Internet and if something comes from a client that I don't expect, I call them or email them before I open it. I don't trust much online anymore. The email that I used for PTIN before I opted out, is not one that my clients have.

"Revenue departments in Colorado and Utah are implementing programs to enable businesses and individuals to pay their tax bills with virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, targeting implementation within a few months. The two Western states look to be outliers, however, and still face some logistical hurdles before their programs launch." This would make scheduling estimated tax payments an interesting challenge, since the value of cryptocurrency changes every day