{"id":1170526,"date":"2021-12-29T19:34:54","date_gmt":"2021-12-30T00:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1170526"},"modified":"2021-12-29T19:34:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T00:34:56","slug":"irs-requirement-to-report-stolen-property-as-income-goes-viral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/irs-requirement-to-report-stolen-property-as-income-goes-viral\/","title":{"rendered":"IRS Requirement to Report Stolen Property as Income Goes Viral"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Firs-requirement-to-report-stolen-property-as-income-goes-viral%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1170526&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/irs-917895892-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\"><span>Several posts displaying the Internal Revenue Service\u2019s (IRS) guideline requiring taxpayers to report stolen goods as income went viral this week, leading to an array of online speculation as to the practical consequences of the requirement as well as references to the recent wave of mass lootings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The IRS requires U.S. citizens to list goods they stole during the year on their federal income tax returns, something which proved news for many after a series of viral posts set off a Twitter storm on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>One post, which received nearly 25,000 likes as of Tuesday night, served as a tongue-in-cheek reminder for taxpayers to report illicit income ahead of the coming tax season, which begins next week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cRemember to report your income from illegal activities and stolen property to the IRS,\u201d the post reads.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tax szn is around the corner. Remember to report your income from illegal activities and stolen property to the IRS <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/c4S1yMZJLz\">pic.twitter.com\/c4S1yMZJLz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 litquidity (@litcapital) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/litcapital\/status\/1475508403732721664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 27, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>The guideline, however, is no laughing matter.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Though many appeared to initially regard the screenshot as fake, it is real \u2014 as the IRS legally requires stolen property and bribes to be reported as income.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The IRS Publication 17 (2021) <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/publications\/p17\"><span>guideline<\/span><\/a><span> states, \u201cIf you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless you return it to its rightful owner in the same year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The publication also says, \u201c[i]f you receive a bribe, include it in your income,\u201d while demanding any unlawful earnings be listed as income.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIncome from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8z, or on Schedule C (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity,\u201d it reads.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>An IRS spokesman confirmed the provisions are on its website but declined to comment further, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/money\/2021\/12\/28\/irs-says-stolen-property-must-reported-and-twitter-goes-wild\/9035694002\/\"><span>according<\/span><\/a><span> to <\/span><i><span>USA Today<\/span><\/i><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Some were quick to point out the utility of such a clause.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>\u201cThis is so the IRS can go after people for tax evasion even for stolen goods,\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bramcohen\/status\/1475578823399723012\"><span>wrote<\/span><\/a><span> one Twitter user.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe reason the IRS requires you to declare stolen goods on your tax returns is so that, when you don\u2019t do that, federal prosecutors can nail you on tax evasion even if they can\u2019t nail you on the theft itself,\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fawfulfan\/status\/1475574044657274880\"><span>wrote<\/span><\/a><span> another.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The matter of reporting unlawfully-gained income to the government has stirred controversy in the past, leading to debate over whether one could be expected to incriminate oneself.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>The U.S. Supreme Court <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2013\/05\/this-day-in-politics-091424\"><span>ruled<\/span><\/a><span> in 1927 that criminals must pay income tax on stolen property, with many having been convicted for tax evasion since, including crime boss Al Capone in 1931.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But that didn\u2019t stop many from musing about the hypothetical implications of such policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAttn: Guy who stole my bike: \u2018If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless you return it to its rightful owner in the same year,\u2019 reads the IRS\u2019 provision for stolen property,\u201d wrote a Twitter user.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cSo two days left to return it to me,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Attn: Guy who stole my bike: &#8220;If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless you return it to its rightful owner in the same year,&#8221; reads the IRS&#8217; provision for stolen property.<br \/>So two days left to return it to me.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Randy Essex (@randyessex) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/randyessex\/status\/1476212329557680129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 29, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And what about the looting that took place in many cities this year?<\/p>\n<p><span>During nationwide unrest after the murder of George Floyd in May and June 2020, cities across the country saw widespread looting among what were&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2020\/09\/16\/nolte-blm-riots-are-officially-the-most-costly-manmade-damage-to-american-property-in-history\/\"><span>reported<\/span><\/a><span> to be the most costly riots in U.S. history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A recent <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/tag\/smash-and-grab\/\"><span>wave<\/span><\/a><span> of incidents featured groups of looters converging on shops and making off with loads of stolen goods in organized \u201csmash and grab\u201d raids in cities across the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A recent comic strip called attention to the rampant looting by portraying what appeared to be a looter attempting to return a stolen television but unable to provide a receipt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Pro-BLM activists have defended looting as a \u201clegitimate\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/04\/16\/blm-activist-calls-rioting-looting-legitimate-response-state-violence\/\"><span>response<\/span><\/a><span> to \u201cstate violence\u201d against minorities and even as a form of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2020\/08\/11\/chicago-blm-organizer-defends-looting-reparations\/\"><span>reparations<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While some Democrats <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/12\/02\/jen-psaki-says-covid-19-is-the-root-cause-of-looting-in-us\/\"><span>blamed<\/span><\/a><span> the pandemic for looting incidents, Republicans have increasingly attributed looting to permissive policies, calls to \u201cdefund\u201d the police, and light punishments for criminals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><i><em>Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joshuaklein_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@JoshuaKlein<\/a><\/em><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several posts displaying the Internal Revenue Service\u2019s (IRS) guideline requiring taxpayers to report stolen goods as income went viral this week, leading to an array of online speculation as to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1170526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1170526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1170526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1170526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1170526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}