Lee B

That and the thousands of employees shifted to answering the phones .

Be careful, there is a lot of misinformation out there. Most clients have preconceived notions which aren't always accurate. Also, certain situations can be significantly more complicated than you might expect. Because of these minefields I don't give specific advice, I speak about issues to be considered. Clients wanting specific advice probably should be referred to Certified Financial Planners.

I had two clients who dabbled in cryptocurrency back in 2021, but fortunately they both closed out their investments

"Statistics from the AICPA suggest that 75 percent of current CPAs will retire in the next 15 years, leaving a huge vacuum in the industry." The outsourcing of accounting tasks to countries like India and The Phillipines will accelerate combined with AI enhancements.

In theory, what you are saying is possible, but aren't you kinda exaggerating?

"The Federal Trade Commission says five large tax preparation companies could face civil penalties if they use or disclose data collected for tax prep for such unrelated purposes as advertising without getting the consumers' consent first. The five firms are H&R Block, Intuit, TaxAct, TaxSlayer and The Lampo Group LLC, d.b.a. Ramsey Solutions."

Tax Implications of a Farmland Lease: https://www.calt.iastate.edu/article/tax-implications-farmland-lease

"Use the table below to determine the general time frame when you can request a transcript for a current year Form 1040 return filed on or before the April due date. Availability varies based on the method you used to file your return and whether you have a refund or balance due. Note: If you made estimated tax payments and/or applied your over payment from a prior year tax return to your current year tax return, you can request a tax account transcript to confirm these payments or credits a few weeks after the beginning of the calendar year prior to filing your current year return. " https://www.irs.gov/individuals/transcript-availability https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript-faqs Does any of this explain your client's situations?

In his situation there was no raffle ticket purchased. The grocery store used a random number generator at the moment the customer paid for their groceries. I shopped at one of these stores for my groceries and won $5 several times So was this a gift or?

Years ago I had a client who shopped at a grocery store where by buying groceries you were entered in a chance to win prizes. She won $3,000 and had to give Fred Meyer her name, address, and SSN which they used to issue a 1099 for her winnings.

"You can't take an income tax charitable contribution deduction for an item of clothing unless it is in good used condition or better. An item of clothing that is not in good used condition or better for which you claim an income tax charitable contribution deduction of more than $500 requires a qualified appraisal and a completed Form 8283. See Deduction over $500 for certain clothing or household items, later."

I looked this up and found : https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/notice_1340.pdf Who knew, Gambling Withholding and or backup withholding could apply "Noncash Prizes: For noncash prizes, the winner must pay the organization 25% of the fair market value of the prize minus the amount of the wager."

Because they have a smart phone and they have plans for their refund

Tax Court cases are one off, they do not set precedent. See IRS Pub 526.

Don't you still have income Of $4,551 taxable either to the estate or to the beneficiary unless the employer issued the W 2 totally in error?

"Generative AI is supercharging financial fraud, and could ultimately make state-of-the-art fraud-prevention measures obsolete, such as voice authentication and even “liveness checks” designed to match a real-time image with the one on record. In 2022, consumers reported losing $8.8 billion to fraud, up more than 40% from 2021, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission reports. " I expect these things will happen. It could get really ugly!

FINCEN just released an updated Small Business Compliance Guide: https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/BOI_Small_Compliance_Guide_FINAL_Sept_508C.pdf

Not Really, they can censure, sanction, fine or suspend, that's it. Beyond that, they have to refer to the Department of Justice for prosecution.

More than likely the SSA will reject the W2 and send it back to the employer but that may not happen right away.

Wages paid in the year after death are supposed to be paid via a 1099 not a W2 so the taxes were withheld in error.

Yeah, I just updated to 117.0.5938.89

Interesting, mine is still at 116.0.5845.168 with no update available. I know they roll out updates over 3 to 5 days. I guess it's not my turn yet.

"Google urges users to install their new update as soon as possible: version 116.0.5845.187 for Mac and Linux, and 116.0.5845.187/.188 for Windows."

Wouldn't it be nice if it was that simple?

Where the heck do you keep finding these clients anyway?