Tax Season Tribune

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Business autos: Boy, did I hit a raw nerve

By Mike Giangrande, J.D., LL.M.

Federal Tax Editor

In last week’s Tribune, I wrote an article titled “Business” autos: The bane of my existence.” If you missed out, you can read it here: https://bit.ly/41d3iV4

I think I hit a raw nerve with many of our readers because I received more direct e-mail responses to that article than any other article I have written in my nine years with Spidell. I responded to many, but the time constraints of tax season prohibited me from responding to everyone.

I take comfort in knowing that so many of us go through the same struggles and are confronted with the same client frustrations.

I communicate with so many tax professionals through e-mail, webinar Q&As, Message Board responses, and good old-fashioned face-to-face conversation at live seminars. I am always comforted when I hear another person in our industry let down their guard and admit to the annoyances in their practice or lament the errors they made along the way.

I don’t take pleasure in the hardship of others, but I take comfort in knowing that whatever I’m going through in my practice, nearly everyone else has gone through it, too.

I may not be able to respond to every e-mail that comes my way, but if you need to let it out, you know where to reach me: mikeg@spidell.com

Men talking

Kaldi and the goats

By Kathryn Zdan, EA

Editorial Director

It’s not the name of a band, it’s the revered beings responsible for everyone’s favorite energy elixir, 2.25 billion cups of which are consumed daily worldwide.1 According to legend, Kaldi the Ethiopian goat herder discovered coffee when he noticed that his goats became energetic and would not sleep at night after eating berries from a certain tree. They were eating coffee cherries, and coffee beans are the seeds inside. Here are more fun facts to peruse as you enjoy your morning cup.

  • Before becoming a drink, coffee was eaten. Early East African tribes would grind the cherries into a paste mixed with animal fat, forming small edible energy balls.2
  • Each coffee cherry typically contains two seeds, but sometimes only one develops, creating what's called a “peaberry,” which some consider to be superior in flavor.3
  • The world's most expensive coffee, Kopi Luwak, comes from partially digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by Indonesian palm civets.4
  • Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world after oil. It employs over 125 million people globally.5
  • Brazil has been the world's largest coffee producer for over 150 years. They produce around one-third of all coffee globally.6

Meanwhile, if you rock as hard as you reconcile, and you’re thinking of forming an office band and need a name (and “LIFO the Party” isn’t doing it for you), Kaldi and the Goats is probably available. I predict a strong cult following, especially among the barista set.

Enjoy responsibly

Too much caffeine can cause a variety of symptoms, including increased heart rate, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, anxiety, nausea, and headache. But what’s “too much,” four cups or 25? Fortunately, there is a helpful online calculator (of unknown provenance) that will let you know your lethal dosage amount (mine is 52.3 cups): www.caffeineinformer.com/death-by-caffeine.

Top 10 IRS cases of 2024

The IRS Criminal Investigation Unit annually releases its top 10 cases from the prior year. Here are some highlights from the list of 2024 cases.1

  • The longest-running bitcoin money laundering service on the darknet has come to an end. A dual Russian-Swedish national was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison for running Bitcoin Fog, a cryptocurrency mixer that allowed criminals to hide transactions involving over 1.2 million bitcoin, valued at approximately $400 million at the time the transactions occurred.
  • A former Jacksonville Jaguars employee was sentenced to six years and six months in prison and ordered to forfeit $22 million in funds he embezzled from the team. He used the team’s virtual credit card program to make hundreds of purchases and transactions with no legitimate business purpose, and then created accounting files that contained numerous false and fraudulent entries and emailed them to the Jaguars’ accounting department. He used the funds to buy a condo and to purchase cryptocurrency, nonfungible tokens, electronics, sports memorabilia, a country club membership, spa treatments, concert and sporting event tickets, home furnishings, and luxury wrist watches.
  • A former law firm partner was sentenced to 10 years in prison for money laundering in connection with the OneCoin international scheme. OneCoin is a multilevel marketing cryptocurrency scheme that originated in Bulgaria and has taken in more than $4 billion. The law firm partner had previously been convicted of laundering OneCoin proceeds for its founder Ruja Ignatova, the “Crypto Queen,” who is a fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

A few fun facts about this week’s writers:

Mike Giangrande, J.D., LL.M.

Mike Giangrande, J.D., LL.M., is an Orange County native, and you can find him around his backyard smoker, working in his garage, or sipping lemonade at either a baseball or soccer game for this three children.

Kathryn Zdan, EA

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.

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