The IRS wants thieves to report stolen income: “If you steal property or deal in bribery or drugs, you must report its ‘fair-market-value’ income.”
Did you steal a car in 2022? How about taking a bribe? If you did, the IRS says you should make sure you report it on your taxes.
The requirements can be found in “IRS Publication 525 Taxable and Nontaxable Income,” amid other missives to report income earned from jobs in the gig economy and what to do about taxable alimony payments. “If I steal a bunch of tvs from walmart and a homeless man steals them from me can i write that off as a loss?” read another tweet posted during that previous tax season.
And yet another tweeter wondered if coming clean to the IRS meant you could keep whatever you’d swiped.
“So once you report your stolen stuff you legally get to keep it right?” read the post. “Asking for a friend.” The IRS’s bewildering rule about self-reporting income from crimes has caused some Twitter users to mock the federal agency.
According to IRS Publication 525, taxpayers are legally required to report the value of whatever property they stole during the tax year.
“If you steal property, you must report its FMV (Fair Market Value) in your income in the year you steal it, unless in the same year you return it to its rightful owner,” the rule reads.
Outlined in the IRS Publication 525, the agency tells sticky-fingered taxpayers: “If you steal property, you must report its FMV (Fair Market Value) in your income in the year you steal it, unless in the same year you return it to its rightful owner.”
As for illegal drug sales or bribery, Uncle Same needs you to include those profits in your 1040 form as well.
The reminder has triggered massive mocking on social media, with one Twitter user cheekily asking: ‘So my black ski mask and duffle bag is used as a deductible from robbing the local liquor store?’
The agency reminds taxpayers it doesn’t turn over information to police unless law enforcement has a case and gets a court order to access the records.
Right.
“The IRS be like I don’t care what law you break as long as I get my fair share,” one poster tweeted.
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