[LethalRose]

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I am a CPA and have dealt with the IRS in this area. They will tell you in no uncertain terms that this is income and no attorney that works in this area will tell you otherwise. Having a transfer held up a week to confirm your identity will not convince the IRS that you do not have full control over the account, especially if you got the money in the end.

I never said that Party was a bank account. I said that Party is an account in which you have a financial interest. The Treasury Department is very clear to include in their examples that it does not mean just bank accounts for reporting.

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I am a lawyer, but not a tax lawyer. I have read a ton of case law in this area though, because it comes up a lot on 2+2. The bottom line is that it is income; income that may be hard for the IRS to audit, but income nonetheless.

There is a bit of precedent in the other direction, so if you're willing to litigate an expensive case with the IRS, you can take a shot at it. But the bottom line is that if it didn't count as income until you withdrew it, it would be way, way too easy to use this as a method of shifting income from one year to the next. There is no chance the IRS would condone something that could be abused this easily by so many people.

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so if its in my account its income and i need to report it?