Accounting
Bitcoin investor ordered to reveal crypto access codes to $124M
An early Bitcoin investor sentenced last month to two years in prison for tax fraud related to cryptocurrency sales has been ordered to disclose his secret pass codes so U.S. officials can unlock digital assets now valued at about $124 million.
Frank Richard Ahlgren III, who owes the government about $1 million in restitution from the criminal case, must hand over the pass codes and identify any devices used to store them, along with disclosing all his cryptocurrency accounts, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled Monday in federal court in Austin, Texas.
Prosecutors had asked the judge in December to force Ahlgren to disclose the location of at least 1,287 Bitcoin he moved in 2020 through a “mixing” service that jumbled crypto tokens and made them harder to trace. Those tokens, which have more than doubled in value over the past year, are now worth more than $124 million.
Ahlgren, who lives in Austin, was the first American
In their request, prosecutors said Ahlgren’s property “cannot be attached by ordinary physical means.” The government asked “not only to restrain any virtual currency by order of this court, but to obtain the private keys to enable it access so that it cannot be moved by others. Should the private keys be lost or destroyed, the virtual currency is irretrievable.”
The judge’s order said that Ahlgren cannot “dissipate,” transfer or sell any property without prior approval of the court, but he can spend on “normal monthly living expenses.”
Ahlgren, who pleaded guilty on Sept. 12, was
“We will comply with a court directive, or to the extent that we have a question, we will direct it to the court,” Kainen said. “We appreciate the care that Judge Pitman has taken throughout this case.”
The case is U.S. v. Ahlgren, 24-cr-00031, U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas (Austin).
Taxpayers have an extra day, until Friday, Jan. 10, to file any return or pay tax originally due on Thursday, Jan. 9.
The IRS granted the time for the Jan. 9 National Day of Mourning for Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. president. He was the longest-lived president in history, dying December 29 at the age of 100.
The one-day extension also applies to any federal income, payroll or excise tax deposit due on Jan. 9, including those required to be made through the Treasury Department’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System.
IRS Free File Guided Tax Software will be available this Friday for taxpayers ahead of the start of tax season later this month.
Starting Jan. 10, IRS Free File will begin accepting individual returns. Providers will generally allow taxpayers to prepare and file returns now and hold them for e-filing when the season starts.
Taxpayers can access free software tools at
“Taxpayers have multiple filing choices,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, in a statement, “including trusted tax professionals, tax software, Free File, Direct File or free preparation services through IRS partners.”
IRS Free File is entering its 23rd filing season and is delivered through a partnership between the IRS and Free File Inc. (formerly the Free File Alliance). Eight private-sector partners will provide online guided tax software products for taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $84,000 or less in 2024. Taxpayers with an AGI above $84,000 can use the Free File Fillable Forms starting Jan. 27.
For 2025, the partners participating in IRS Free File are 1040Now, Drake (1040.com), ezTaxReturn.com (also in Spanish), FileYourTaxes.com, On-Line Taxes,TaxAct, TaxHawk (FreeTaxUSA) and TaxSlayer.
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Local governments and municipalities have been
In the Tax Foundation’s
The most competitive states are ranked from one to 10 according to their scores, one being the most competitive within the group and 10 being the least. For the states at the tail end of the spectrum, which are the least competitive in terms of sales and excise taxes, rankings are from 50 for the least competitive to 40 for the state with the highest comparative score.
Read on to see which states were the most — and least — competitive when it comes to these tax areas.
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