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IRS Wants People To Report Stolen Goods As Income...And They Are Dead Serious

With the year coming to a close, a lot of peoples' time will be spent coming up with resolutions that they have no actual intention of sticking to as well as being miserable about tax season.

However, one tweet about the IRS which recently went viral has surprisingly had people in hysterics across the internet.

The tweet contained an image of a piece of guidance being issues by the IRS regarding their taxes.

Unsplash | Scott Graham

Tax advice is not normally the sort of place where you would expect to find even a morsel of humor, but the IRS's guidance about "stolen goods" tickled more than a fair share of people.

The IRS would apparently like all people to report their earnings from illegal activities!

Yes you read the above guidance correctly — if you have any stolen property then you should be sure to report how much it is worth as a part of your tax return.

However, you will not have to pay tax on this if you return the property that you have stolen, which is nice!

The guidance naturally had a lot of people amazed, with many taking to social media to share their own thoughts on the official guidance.

Many did not think that the guidance was real, but it turned out that it was.

"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" claims the IRS' 2021 Federal Income Tax Guide.

So, if you've got any stolen property, now is the time to work out its fair market value!

Some people did think that this might be a trick to get thieves to admit to having stolen certain items, but you'd have to be pretty dense to fall for that!

However, I have no doubt that there will be come people who are thick enough to fall for a scheme like that!

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