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I hear it’s really easy to make a small fortune trading crypto by using a simple 3-step plan 1) Stat with a large fortune. 2) Begin trading crypto. 3) When you notice you’re down to a small fortune, stop trading. Sounds foolproof when you do it that way.

I think I will invest my money in my mental health and spend it on a nice vacation

Companies close all the time. Why do you care what happened in the last year when the reality for which you have been hired is to prepare the taxes based on the documents in front of you... you are not hired to verify the validity of each W2 or 1099 forms. I guess this is not my main job but when people start questioning the validity of the forms, I hand them back to them and I say: if you believe the forms are wrong, go back to the issuer and solve the issue. After you solve the issue, come back to me when you are ready to file your taxes. I am not a financial advisor, nor am I an attorney, nor have you hired me as such.

Tom: I've never dealt with a Self Directed IRA directly. However several clients have come to me with schemes to use one for a rental property, or even to invest in a franchise business. It seemed really popular among some franchising companies a decade or so ago - the franchising company would ally with a S/D IRA administrator to promote this as a way to buy into the franchise. (Maybe they still do). After reading a little about the rules, and studying a few stories about how these schemes failed, primarily over "prohibited transactions" as you mentioned, I decided to never touch one. I learned just enough about them to avoid them like the plague. I'd just tell the client that if they moved ahead with the plan they would need to find another accountant. Furthermore, I knew someone who was scammed by a financial advisor who set up a promissory note in a S/D IRA that even their family didn't know anything about until it blew up in their face. So I have a strong bias against these contrivances. Not saying they never work or there isn't a place for them, but there's too much room to get tripped up by seemingly minor mistakes as well as lots of room for outright abuse.

I discuss with clients and let them make the call in cases where Sect 179 does not fit or it can't be squeezed into 1.263(a) safe harbor. Most decided not to wait for a ship that has not yet set sail, and potentially file amended returns.