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Thanks for the suggestions. I got it figured out.

Well, I think there are differences. Stock options grant a "right" to the holder to purchase something that is real... a specified stock that has ownership value based on the company that issued the stock. Derivatives are similar to a exata bet on a horse race... if the horses come in as you predicted, you get paid. If the prices of the derivative move as you predicted they would you get paid. NFTs are identifiable computer works. The first one was a "painting" of sorts created in a computer. Someone created something that is "signed and numbered" and verifiable through the blockchain recording system. No different than a numbered lithograph. Coins - I am still not sure what they are. Not trying to be combative, just sharing how I am thinking when I try and bring these concepts down to my level of comprehension. Tom Longview, TX

Goes to show, it's not what you say, it's how you say it.

Tracy Alloway (Bloomberg and the Odd Lots Podcast which is AMAZING) made a really good comparison of crypto with Beanie Baby dolls. Beanie Babies had someone who distributed / sold a price sheet that everyone used to price them as if it was their real value. Prices just kept going up and nobody really questioned it because it was on the list. If someone said that Beanie Baby wasn't worth $30, they could point to the list. Crypto had a price list but turned out it was all manipulated just as much as the Beanie Baby list. FTX was buying on one board and selling on another to themselves at higher and higher prices to justify getting more and more loans on their worthless asset. They bid a coin they owned almost all of up to over $50 each (total value of $9.6b) and now it's priced at $.87 ($300m) and has a value of $0. Warren Buffet said that if you owned all of the Bitcoin in the world and offered them to him for a total price of $25 he'd decline.

I don't know what it is. I think I have a handle on what a NFT is, but the "coins" are not something I can't get behind yet. Maybe someday, but right now I am not there. The IRS seems to say it is "property of some kind", and they have some rules on how to handle transactions involving virtual stuff, so I am going to follow that. Tom Longview, TX

It's Virtual Property.

I have been trying to login off and on for over a week. I enter my user name and password then I'm asked to request an authentication code be sent to my email which I do. The email doesn't arrive for 2-3 days and, of course, is invalid by the time I get it. I tried to call today but I was number 76 in the queue..........

I have read variations of this list online: 1. Just a friendly reminder . . 2. Don't take this the wrong way . . . 3. Got it 4. How are we doing with . . . . that I'm waiting for 5. If that's what you want to do . . . It does make you think about how you communicate with clients, friends and family. So my New year's Resolution is to be less negative and more positive

Options and Derivatives are legally binding contracts. Repos, reverse repos, swaps, commodity futures.... There are a lot of really smart people out there.

I don't see any difference between Crypto, Non Fungible Tokens, Stock Options or Derivatives., You can't see, smell, touch or hold them. They are all numbers in a computer somewhere

At the risk of being censored for political commentary..... I think the cryptoverse wants regulation so they can peddle their risky investments and say they are complying with the regulators. It will give a shady investment some kind of legitimacy. Blockchain is a very interesting technology and how it gets used will be in ways I can't even imagine. I think it is one of the coolest things humans have thought of in the last couple of decades. But cryptocurrencies (the offshoot of blockchain technology) are not assets or currencies or securities or property of any kind yet. Just my opinion, you don't have to agree. Tom Longview, TX

I would create my own letter or at the very least have the client sign and date your file copies.

Memo to the file with name, dates and times, which is why I prefer email.

With phone or any other non written information, how to you handle they said/I heard issues? While we are in different industries, the issue is very relevant to both. In the current environment, many (including me) insist on having a trail for nearly everything, to reduce miscommunication, to provide backing, etc.

I encourage calls from clients. I want them to ask me questions and I know the questions that I want to ask them. To many of you, this may seem foolish and a waste of time; but to me nothing is worse than having to do an amendment because something was missed. I, personally, interview every client and give them as much time as they need. I don't prepare returns while they are sitting here. If it's going to be too much for me, I will refer them to a practitioner that I trust. They are paying for my time and service. I want to give them what they are paying for and I tell them that I am here all year if something comes up that they have a question about. I don't like surprises at tax time. My husband and I reflected on our 63 years together on Christmas Eve after all of the "kids" had gone. We have been so blessed. We started out with a lot of Nothing. Neither of us even had a job at the time. We have both worked hard both as employees and finally as self-employed. We reflected on what we had then and what we have now. We have been so blessed. I have spent a lot of time learning and I don't mind sharing some of that time with individuals who need help. When I go to bed at night, I sleep really well.

Long ago, clerking for a local tractor sales repair outfit, I composed a collection letter which mentioned some of the above lines plus others I created. Hot into writing at the time (no best-sellers emerged), I considered mine a friendly-browbeating masterpiece. A fellow colleague from our nearby competitor later called; praising it highly and asking permission to use it. Quite pleased, I agreed. Next month he called back: "We got a better letter than yours." (Their customers didn't pay well, but neither did they.) A rough, camo-collar guy who sold scrap iron but was also known to pack an iron, had penciled on his notebook-paper statement: I WANT MY MONEY Paid the same day received. BB

Are you saying that you are changing your password because the system says you must? I just went through that, and there was some verbiage about the password requirements (however many characters, l number, l letter, etc). Is your attempted password compliant? Also, the new password can't resemble any you've used before. (If you started with Tax 88, the new one can't be Tax 89). Try coming up with a unique password and let us know how it goes.