Another article about the Citi 1099s, with quotes from a law professor who authored a treatise on tax law:
New: Taxation of Frequent Flier Miles
http://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/...t-flier-miles/
He weighed in on FMV:
Worse, the bank evidently came up with the lavish valuation of 2.5 cents a mile. Ridiculous, says Dominic Daher, co-author of a West hornbook on tax law and adjunct professor of taxation at the University of San Francisco; the fair market value of miles is more like a penny each.
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I liked that the author got his hands at least a little bit dirty and talked about values and how to do the tax forms. The other articles by "tax experts" were the classic professor types who quote some statutes and run away from how to actually do a tax return, and I liked that they pointed out that Fidelity is doing it differently, i.e. "correctly" in my opinion by valuing the miles at an amount that doesn't require a Form 1099-MISC.
While this professor explains how to adjust your return to this penny per mile FMV, there is nothing in the article about
why this FMV of a penny is reasonable. I think there is a good argument to make for a penny per mile FMV, and I wish we had seen it here.