Nov. 5, 2024

Understanding Digital Asset Reporting Requirements (Episode # 308)

In today's fast-evolving financial landscape, understanding tax reporting for digital assets is crucial. Tune into our latest podcast episode for information on your tax reporting obligations.  #DigitalAssets #Finance #Podcast

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In today's fast-evolving financial landscape, understanding tax reporting for digital assets is crucial. Tune into our latest podcast episode for information on your tax reporting obligations. #DigitalAssets #Finance #Podcast

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Well, good afternoon, Michiganers. It is Tuesday, November fifth, twenty

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twenty four, otherwise known as election Day. So if you

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haven't made it out to the polls, I encourage you

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get out there and vote so that your voice can

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be heard.

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Of course, this.

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Is Tuesday with Tom, Michigan's only weekly intern at show

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where we do answer your questions about estate planning and

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a state settlement in Michigan. I'm your host, Tom Doyle,

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a state planning attorney, lifelong Michigan resident, an ambassador for

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all things good in this great state of Michigan. Welcome,

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Welcome to today's program. And I know, at least here in

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the Grand Rapids area, it's kind of a misty, rainy,

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gloomy kind of day. But don't let that stop you

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from getting out and having your voices heard by voting.

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Last episode, I talked about the twenty twenty five increase

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in federal estate tax and gift exemption. So as you're

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looking for what's going to happen next year, I've talked

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about this almost a year ago, and I talked about

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it again the last episode.

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There's going to be some potential.

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Changes on the there's certainly going to be some increases

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in federal estate tax gift exempt for twenty twenty five. Also,

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though it's important to remember, there's going to be some

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dramatic potential changes in those same amounts in twenty twenty six.

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So I encourage you listen to last week's episode so

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that you have a better understanding about what the new

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exemptions are in twenty twenty five and what's going to

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be at least on the table right now in twenty

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twenty six. Today today we're going to talk about a

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little bit something we're going to talk about as understanding

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digital asset reporting requirements.

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But please remember what I'm.

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About to discuss, as always during the program, is for

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educational purposes only. It is not intended to be legal advice.

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You need to work with your attorney and certainly in

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the case of digital asset reporting, with your tax advisor

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to determine what is appropriate for you and your planning.

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Understanding digital asset reporting requirements, well, if you're asking what's

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a digital asset, then this probably isn't anything that's going

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to be relevant to you, because if you own them,

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you will know what they are. But quite frankly, if

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you're looking at your tax forms, your ten ninety nine

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ten forty forms, you're going to notice a checkbox on there,

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and in that box you do have to indicate whether

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or not you received digital assets. So having some idea

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of what a digital asset is and what the reporting

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requirements might apply to you, but essentially, if you have

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a digital asset, you're likely.

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Going to know that you have it.

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So what are they? Well, digital assets, And before I

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go there, you know a lot of people get, well,

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let's go there first. Digital assets a form of value.

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It's like cash, but they exist only in a digital form,

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only in a computer form, and they're protected by strong cryptography.

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So the idea is is that you have this digital money.

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Think of it in those terms. It exists only in

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a computer. It doesn't exist in the actual real physical world,

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but it's protected by cryptography so that it can be

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transferred to other people. People can't supposedly hack into it,

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steal it, all those good.

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Kinds of things.

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They're going to be operated on what they oftentimes call

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a blockchain or distributed ledger or some sort of similar technology.

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And you don't really need to understand blockchain technology, just

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stibuted ledger. But it exists. It's all part of the

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digital world that's designed to manage and allow for the

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protection of and transfer of this digital assets. Oftentimes you

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might have heard of things like this a virtual currency

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or cryptocurrency or what they call ntfs and NFTs non

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fudgible token. So for example, you probably heard about bitcoin.

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Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is actually a

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type of digital currency. And when I talk about NFTs,

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perhaps you've heard about these in particular because at some

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point in time over the last number of years, Donald

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Trump has sold if you will, NFTs. But in most situations,

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what an NFT is is, for example, I create a

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piece of art and it exists only in a computer.

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It's not on paper, it's not on you can't put

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it on my wall.

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It is totally in the digital world.

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Well an NFT, and if I want that to be protected,

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I put it out there as an NFT, which because

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of cryptography that's being involved, it only exists in this

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partitical digital world. It cannot be copied, so somebody can't

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just make a copy. Right now, if I just take

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a photo and I put a photo out on the internet,

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so may can make a copy of that photo. Well,

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if I'm creating a unique piece of art, think about

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in those terms. I don't want someone to seem to

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be able to make a copy of it, because the

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value to me perhaps is because there is only one

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of them, or ten of them, or however number there

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happened to be of them. So I want it to

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be protected where it can't be copied, it can't be substituted,

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it can't be divided, and they can represent a number

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of items, but oftentimes it's artwork. And you perhaps have

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heard in the new use over the last year, it's

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kind of hard to avoid it that the Trump family,

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apparently along with others, is starting up what they call

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a cryptocurrency exchange. And a cryptocurrency exchange is simply a

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place that you go online on your computer or on

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your phone where you can buy and sell cryptocurrency, for example,

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where you can buy and sell bitcoin. So that's a

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kind of basic rundown of what we're talking about when

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we talk about digital assets. But the truth of the

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matter is you have likely been involved in some sort

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of digital currency for most of your life and didn't

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even know. So think about this. If you write a check,

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a check is not cash. A check is not dollar bills,

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five dollar bills, ten dollar bills. It's a written iou.

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If you will.

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And when that check gets too as it did, it's

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becomes digital currency, meaning what the check itself today doesn't

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go from your bank to somebody else's bank. They simply

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process it, turn it into internally in the banking system,

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if you think about it, digital currency that then gets

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transferred someplace else. Or another example, let's say you're going

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to do a wire transfer. You've got let's say you've

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got a daughter who's in Florida and you want to

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send her some money, or you have a grandchild who

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might be traveling somewhere and you want to send them

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some money. Well, you don't normally put thousands of dollars

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in a box and you send it off to them.

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You're going to go to your bank and you're going

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to say to your bank, I want to send my

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son some money once send my daughter somebody and they

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can do that. It'll be done digitally. You're not they're

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going to take money out of your bank account. But

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think about this. In reality, your bank account at the bank,

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it doesn't have five thousand dollars in cash sitting in it.

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Okay, it's digital.

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Okay, it's backed up by other cash, but it's truly digital.

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And then they're going to take your digital money that's

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saved at the bank and they're going to send that

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through the through the internal banking system to the bank

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account for your son or grandchild. So you're already involved

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in much of a digital world. But really what we're

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talking about here, this whole idea of digital assets, is

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where you're not involved with a bank. There is no

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bank involved, there is no When banks are involved in theory,

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there's cash, there's money, literally money that backs up what

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that bank has to have. But in a digital world,

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there is no bank, there is no cash, there's nothing

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backing up this digital asset. It's simply a form of

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assets that can be transferred back and forth between individuals

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for different things. And because there's no bank involved, because

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there's no government involved, the reason that the IRS requires

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you to check that box on your tax return is

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because there is no physical record that somebody can go

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look at to see did you own it?

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What did you do with it.

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Now, with that having been said, digital asset digital transactions,

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a few will So we're talking about certain things are

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going to happen where you're going to have to have

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certain reporting requirements. So among digital asset transaction, things are

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like selling digital asset. I own bitcoin, and I sell

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my bitcoin to somebody else. Or I create that artwork

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online and I sell my artwork to somebody else.

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I have sold a digital asset.

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Maybe somebody is going to give me a digital asset

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as payment for goods or services. Maybe somebody is going

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to pay me in bitcoin for work that I did

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for them. Now, our office doesn't currently accept bitcoin or

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digital assets cryptocurrency for.

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Work that we do. I know there are some law

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firms that are beginning to do that.

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There are some other companies out there that are beginning

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to accept cryptocurrency.

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If you will, as payment.

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So if you receive them as payment for goods or services,

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that's going to be an asset transaction, or perhaps acquiring

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new ones through what they call mining or staking. And

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that's really the process by which and it gets very

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perhaps kind of complicated, but that's the process by which

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new cryptocurrency gets created. It's not a bank that creates it.

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There's a computer process that goes through where new digital

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currency can be created. So if you acquire one through

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this process of creating digital currency, that's an asset transaction,

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or perhaps obtaining one through what's called a hard fork,

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and that's simply where cryptocurrency splits in two.

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So think about stock.

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You probably have heard about this, at least I might

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own stock in a company and then the stock split.

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So where I had one hundred shares, now it's going

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to split, and now I have two hundred shares, Okay.

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It doesn't mean suddenly it's worth one hundred percent more.

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It usually means, okay, my hundred shares is now two

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hundred shares, where they're all total the same amount that

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I owned before. Same thing with cryptocurrency. There can be

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situations where the currency splits, if you will, and in

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that case, you are obtaining additional cryptocurrency as a result

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of that split. Another dig digital asset transaction would be

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something like where you are exchanging them for property, good services,

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or other digital assets. So whenever they're being exchanged for

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if you will, services or perhaps actual property, maybe you're

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gonna buy a car and you're gonna use bitcoin to

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buy the car, okay, or you're gonna use them to

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buy other digital assets. Maybe I'm gonna take my bitcoin

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and I'm gonna use my bitcoin to buy that piece

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of artwork that NFT is at out there. Again, another

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example of a digital asset transaction, and quite frankly, any

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other disposition of a financial interest in a digital asset,

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that's kind of a catch all broad any dist disposition

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of any interest that you had in a digital asset. Now,

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so those are all examples of digital asset transactions that

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we're really talking about here today. So the reporting requirements,

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that's what we really want to have a conversation a

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little bit about today. If you're involved in any of

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those sorts of transactions, you have to report all income related.

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To the transaction.

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And the way you go about then determining calculating your

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gainer loss because there might be capital gains tax. Just

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like owning stock. If I own stock and I sell

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my stock for more.

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Than I bought it for, I might be subject to

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a capital gain.

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Same thing if I go out and buy bitcoin as

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an investment, think about it, and I sell my bitcoin

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for more than I bought it, same concept, or I'm

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going to have capital gains And so the way you're

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going to calculate your gainer loss or the tax form

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you're going to use reporting all of these different transactions

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is really going to depend upon what type of transaction

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you are involved in. So, for example, gainer loss from

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selling digital assets, well, gainer loss from selling digital assets

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is just like gainer loss from selling stock, gainer loss

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from selling gold, gainer loss from selling other physical assets.

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So there's an IRS Form eighty nine forty nine which

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has to do with sales and other dispositions of capital assets.

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That's going to be the form that you will have

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to report the gain or loss that you receive from

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selling the digital asset. If you received a digital asset

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is a gift. If somebody gave you a digital asset

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as a gift, the IRS says on form seven oh nine,

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you would have to report the gift that you received

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that was a digital asset. So somebody gives you a

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bitcoin or gives you an NFT, you have to report

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that to on form seven o nine. According to the IRS,

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if you receive any sort of digital asset as compensation

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for services or disposed of any digital assets that you

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held for sale to customers in a trader business, then

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they have to be reported as income just like any

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other income gets reported.

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So if I my office decided, hey.

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We are going to receive payment of out for our

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services with bitcoin, if we could set ourselves up to

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do that, somebody could use bitcoin to pay the.

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Bill that we send them.

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If we do that, that's going to be income, just

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like any other income that we have, and it's going

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to have to be appropriately reported on the correct IRS

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form where all of our income gets reported as part

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of our tax return. If it's for services and I'm

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not a company, it might be some sort of ten

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ninety nine that or tenth it's going to get reported

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on my ten forty. I think that's going to be

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on schedule. See if I'm not mistaken as part of

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the ten forty that I do. Now, if you're an

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employee and you were an employee who got paid with

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digital assets, maybe I decide to pay staff by using bitcoin.

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I'm not going to write them a check. I'm just

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going to use bitcoin to pay the staff. Well, in

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that case, the staff that's income. Those are wages that

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have to be reported. And similarly, if they worked as

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an independent contractor and got paid, So the guys who's

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doing plumbing work for me at my condo and I

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pay that plumbing.

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Work with bitcoin.

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That would be compensation that would be paid. They would

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have to, depending upon how they are structured, might have

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to report on schedule ce of income that they received

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or profit and loss. If it's a solo proprietorship, what

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sort of tax return You're going to have all of

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those kinds of things, and the employee has to report

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it as income and wages. That's their responsibility. So you

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can have these transactions. There is nothing illegal on its

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face about using bitcoin. There's nothing illegal on its face

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about using NFTs or using different types of digital assets.

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Because bitcoin isn't the only one that's out there. It's

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not the only cryptocurrency. There are a number of other

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cryptocurrencies being created, but bitcoin is the one that you

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probably are the most familiar. It's not illegal to use it,

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but you do have reporting obligations, and obviously if you

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don't fulfill your reporting obligations to it, that's the problem

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that you are creating. That is the problem that you're

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creating for yourself because you haven't appropriately addressed the income

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or report the income that you receive. Just like anything else,

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I mean, it happens every day right. We have people

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every day out there that are in a cash economy.

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They only receive payment for their services in cash. They

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have an obligation to report that income that they get.

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If they don't, they have a problem with the IRS

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because they're potentially engaging in tax fraud. Same kind of

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it's just a different type of if you will asset

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that's being involved.

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So if.

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If you are involved in any of those transactions, then

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you have to report them and you're going to.

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Have to look at the different forms that you do this.

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So the bottom line of all of that, of all

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of that is to understand that you're going to have

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to report it on your tax return.

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There's a box there. If you don't report on your.

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Tax return and you are engaging in different transactions relative

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to these digital assets, and you fail to check that box,

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you are potentially going to have problems with the IRS

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because the law requires that box to be checked and

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you didn't check it, that's going to create problems for you. So,

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no matter what you've done, no matter what digitalizet you're

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engaged in, always check with your tax and financial advisor

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to be sure that you are complying with the.

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Latest IRS guidelines.

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And again, as I said, nothing illegal about using digital assets,

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just like there's nothing illegal about using cash. There's nothing

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illegal about writing checks. There's nothing illegal about doing online transfers.

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Many of us today on our phones today, on my phone,

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00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:32.359
I've got Apple Cash. I have an Apple phone. My

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00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:35.680
son who's off in Saint Louis might need some money

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00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:37.759
to do something that I have him doing for me.

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I use Apple Cash to transfer the money to him.

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Okay, there's nothing illegal about all of these different endeavors.

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The problem you come into is when you have reporting

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requirements and those parting parents also have tax.

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Considerations with them.

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So you've got the reporting requirement one, you also have

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the potential tax issue that goes along with that that

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you will have potential problems if you're not fulfilling those obligations.

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Of course, amand and I are not your tax advisors,

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00:22:37.319 --> 00:22:40.000
so you need to work with your financial advisor tax

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advisor if you're going to be involved in digital assets. Now, obviously,

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from an estate planning standpoint, if you do own digital assets,

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they need to be accounted for in your estate plan.

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How are those assets going to be transferred to somebody else?

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We're going to have a whole conversation about that. But

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a man and I would be to have the opportunity

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to have that discussion with you if you have digital

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assets as part of your state plan, or simply to

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00:23:08.839 --> 00:23:11.759
protect your loved ones by putting together your state plan,

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00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:13.960
a mending a current plan, or.

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Assisting you in settling in a state.

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All that information about consulting with us, whether it's going

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to be a zoom call, or whether it's going to

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be an in office consultation at either our Grand Rapids

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00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:32.319
headquarters or our East Lansing meeting location, all of that

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00:23:32.519 --> 00:23:37.920
information can be found at our website, Doyle LAWPC dot com.

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So head to Doyle LAWPC dot com.

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00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:43.400
You'll find all that information on how to schedule a consultation,

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00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:45.240
what information to send us.

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Et cetera, et cetera.

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00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:50.519
While you're there. If all you are looking for is

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an individual document, let me just give you an example.

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Someone contact the office the other day they had a

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parcel of real estate that was being sold.

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The title company was saying.

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Hey, you needed an updated certificate of trust so that

357
00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:06.960
the trust can sell that real estate. You can actually

358
00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:10.039
go to our legal store where you have the ability

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00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:15.400
to order different legal documents online, such as a certificate

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00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:19.480
of trust. It'll walk you through what information needs to

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00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:22.319
be sent, how you make payment. We can prepare the

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00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:25.240
document and we can send it to you via email

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00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:27.720
so you can print it at your end. Of course,

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once you receive your information, if we have a conflict

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in representing you, we'll let you know that. Or if

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we need more additional information or we're unable to meet requests,

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00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:40.279
we're certainly going to do that. It's not that you

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00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:44.279
just put information in and a document comes out. When

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00:24:44.359 --> 00:24:47.279
you submit information through the legal store, it is coming

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00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:50.680
to us. It is coming to the attorneys in the

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00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:53.880
office who we are reviewing it and making sure it

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00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:57.599
is something that we can do for you before any

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00:24:57.680 --> 00:24:58.519
work gets done.

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00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:01.359
But it is a it is an option for you.

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00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:06.160
Folks who are looking for individual legal documents as well. Again,

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00:25:06.680 --> 00:25:23.240
all of that is available at Doyle LAWPC dot com. Well,

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I think that's going to be it for today's show. Again,

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00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:29.039
just a reminder I start out the program. If you're

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00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:33.559
still with me, reminder, don't forget to vote. Get out there,

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00:25:34.200 --> 00:25:37.519
make your voice heard. That's a great thing about living

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00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:41.880
in this country. Not every country that's out there has

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00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:45.920
the opportunity for the citizens to be involved in electing

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00:25:46.119 --> 00:25:49.920
the people who are going to be running the country.

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Well.

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As always, if you have a comment about the program,

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00:25:54.039 --> 00:25:56.440
perhaps a topic that you'd like to have me discuss,

387
00:25:56.559 --> 00:25:59.640
or questions that you'd like to have answered, head over

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00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:03.279
to Tuesday with Tom dot com. If you haven't been there,

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00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:05.240
go take a look at it. It's been a while

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00:26:05.400 --> 00:26:07.680
if you haven't looked at Tuesday at Tom dot com for.

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00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:08.240
Quite a while.

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00:26:09.079 --> 00:26:13.400
Over the last year, major changes to the website much improved,

393
00:26:13.559 --> 00:26:17.559
much easier to locate information. You actually have the ability

394
00:26:17.640 --> 00:26:21.079
to search the website for a topic. So maybe you're

395
00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:25.000
looking for information on I don't know, pick something certificate

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00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:25.400
of trust.

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00:26:25.799 --> 00:26:27.160
Type in certificate of Trust.

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00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:31.279
It'll give you the list of the dates and podcasts

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00:26:31.319 --> 00:26:34.640
where I talked about different certificates of trust. You're also

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00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:37.200
going to find at the website that there's now a

401
00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:42.319
little microphone icon. If you click on that microphone icon,

402
00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:45.279
you can actually leave me a voicemail, So you can

403
00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:47.680
do that if you have a question or a topic

404
00:26:47.799 --> 00:26:50.079
that you'd like it to have me discuss, or you

405
00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:52.440
can always send me an email, and that would be

406
00:26:52.599 --> 00:26:55.079
Tom at Tuesday with Tom dot com.

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00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:56.880
Please to follow us.

408
00:26:56.839 --> 00:26:59.480
On Facebook and invite your friends and family to follow

409
00:26:59.559 --> 00:27:00.759
us on face Book as well.

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00:27:01.240 --> 00:27:04.200
That's going to be Tuesday with Tom while they're at it.

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00:27:04.359 --> 00:27:06.039
While you're at it, you might as well.

412
00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:10.200
Also filed follow the Doyle Law PC Facebook page. We

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00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:14.920
use that to provide regular updates about things that we

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00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:18.640
think might be important for you to know Tuesday with Tom.

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00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:22.400
We're also normally providing frequent updates and things that are

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00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:25.400
just going on in the state of Michigan. Places to visit,

417
00:27:25.720 --> 00:27:27.640
things that you might want to look at doing here

418
00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:32.400
as well, and don't forget join our email list subscribe

419
00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:34.839
at Tuesday with Tom. You can do that there, or

420
00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:37.839
if you go to DOYLELAWPC dot com, you can subscribe

421
00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:40.759
to our news letter where we have a monthly newsletter

422
00:27:40.839 --> 00:27:43.720
that goes out with different topics that we think are

423
00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:50.839
helpful and relevant to estate planning, or tax planning, or

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00:27:51.480 --> 00:27:58.759
financial planning, or just general life issues. As things go forward,

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00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:03.480
remember too. Tuesday with Tom is available in many locations.

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00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:09.599
We're available on Apple podcast and Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, iHeartRadio, Speaker,

427
00:28:10.599 --> 00:28:14.160
and if wherever you choose to listen to your podcast,

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00:28:14.279 --> 00:28:17.400
we're probably already there, and if we're not, let me

429
00:28:17.559 --> 00:28:20.200
know that and we'll see if we can't manage to

430
00:28:20.279 --> 00:28:25.079
have the broadcast distribute on that channel that you prefer

431
00:28:25.319 --> 00:28:27.920
to use. And of course you can always ask your

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00:28:27.960 --> 00:28:32.519
smart speaker to play Tuesday with Tom. Well, thanks again

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00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:36.839
for spending some of your Tuesday with us today and

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00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:40.680
as always, I have hope that you have an awesome

435
00:28:40.799 --> 00:28:44.319
day and an awesome week in Michigan.

436
00:28:45.640 --> 00:28:48.000
Please vote and stay safe.

437
00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:54.079
Tuesday with Tom has been brought to you by the

438
00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:58.319
estate planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC. To learn how

439
00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:00.759
we can help you with your estate plan or was

440
00:29:00.839 --> 00:29:04.160
settling a loved one's estate, please call us today at

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00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:07.279
five one seven three two three seven three sixty six.

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00:29:07.799 --> 00:29:10.880
That's five one seven three two three seven three six

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00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:11.200
six