Spidell's Tax Season Tribune

Sound advice on cryptocurrency

By Diane Fuller

Contributing Editor

I’ve decided to become an expert on cryptocurrency because it’s definitely here to stay.

First of all, the names can be amusing, and that gives me confidence in my investments: Crypto Fetch, Munch Token, Dogecoin, Potcoin, Garlicoin, just to name a few. Crypto Fetch reportedly has the potential to grow 20 times in 2023, so don’t wait much longer to invest. “Fetch.ai is an innovative blockchain platform that merges blockchain technology with artificial intelligence.”¹ (Today’s trading value is $.03785 – oooo … up 12.36% … AI is really hot right now … go for it!^*)

Munch Token is a decentralized and community-owned currency that is “biting back” on traditional investment models. “All Munch transactions are subject to a 10% transaction fee that is redistributed back to the community and charitable causes.”² (Today’s trading value: $.000000001058 – eeek …down 1.72%. The maximum supply is 100,000,000,000,000, so it looks like there’s plenty available … no urgency on this one.)

Dogecoin was created as a fun alternative to Bitcoin. It’s legit, though, because you can buy a Tesla with it. (Today’s trading value: $0.076072 … this is considered an upswing, as it resumes a more “bullish” pattern.³ Despite the upswing, it would still take a lot of Dogecoin to buy the Tesla model I want.)

If you need to buy and sell your cannabis products anonymously, definitely invest in Potcoin, which brings marijuana businesses and consumers together in a decentralized, peer-to-peer platform.⁴ (Today’s trading value: $0.004515 … up 2.91% over the last 24 hours … it’s smokin’!)

Because I like to cook, my personal favorite is Garlicoin. It is marketed as “the deadbolt for door locks; it’s secure and protects you from crypto vampires.”⁵ (Today’s trading value: $0.010546 … that’s down from an all-time high of $0.713037. Now’s probably a good time to buy because it’s bound to go back up because who doesn’t like garlic, and it’s been around for over 5,000 years!)

Hope this helps with your investment decisions.

^* The material contained in this article should not be relied upon as a basis for making any financial decisions. But if you do invest in one of these, let me know how that turns out.

Anyone up for some corn on the spider?

By Kathryn Zdan, EA

Editorial Director

Speaking of weird cryptocurrency names, here are a few interesting tidbits regarding the English language.

The Old English word for “spider” was “coppe,” which is how we got the modern “cobweb.”¹ But the word cobweb is most commonly used to refer to dusty old spider webs, rather than the newly spun fresh ones that I manage to walk face-first through on evening strolls.

What’s the dot over a lowercase i or j called? (Hint: It’s not “the dot.”) It’s called a tittle, which means “a tiny amount or part of something.”²The small stroke on the upper-right side of a typed lowercase g (although not in this font) is referred to as the “ear;” this is also the name of the curved part of the lowercase r. And the horizontal bar on a lowercase t is a crossbar. So don’t forget to title your i’s and crossbar your t’s.

The abbreviation OMG was first used by Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher in a letter to Winston Churchill dated September 9, 1917:³“I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis – O.M.G. (Oh! My God!) – Shower it on the Admiralty!” LOL (I think?).

There is some dispute over the longest English word. Irreputable online sources claim it’s the full chemical name for a protein known as “titin,” which clocks in at 189,819 letters and takes three hours to pronounce. This could not be verified by Spidell researchers. However, methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamyl...serine is the chemical name of E. coli TrpA and is the longest published word at 1,909 letters.⁴ It’s followed by pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which means “the disease silicosis” (why not just say “the disease silicosis”?) and at 45 letters is the longest word in a major dictionary.

Women’s History Month: Women in Tax

As we close out March, Women’s History Month, here is a list of some of the female firsts in the tax and accounting arena:¹

Christine Ross: First female CPA (1899)

Mary E. Murphy: Second U.S. woman to earn a Doctorate degree in accountancy (1938)

Selma Mortenson: First female Internal Revenue Agent (1940s?)

Dorothy G. Willard: First female president of National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) (1967)

Pauline Creal: First secretary of National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) (1972)

Pat Burton, EA: First female president of NAEA (1985)

Shirley D. Peterson: First female Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service (1992)

Olivia F. Kirtley: First woman chair of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) (1998)

Janet Yellen: First female U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (2021)

A few fun facts about this week’s writers:

Kathryn Zdan, EA, spends her non-Spidell hours on photography and watching horror films (and then sleeping with the light on). She also enjoys hiking, biking, and watching foreign films.

Diane Fuller loves to read, cook, and go to Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho, as many times as possible during the year with her family including grandkids and dogs.

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