Originally Posted by Andy2

The tax concepts being discussed should be equally applicable to miles received from opening any bank or brokerage account (excluding credit card accounts).

Citi is the only financial institution that appears to have issued a Form 1099 for the account opening bonus paid in the form of miles or points. The lack of a Form 1099 doesn't, of course, mean something is not taxable. But the receipt of the Form 1099 causes the recipient to have to address the issue since the IRS gets a copy of the Form 1099. You can peruse numerous prior threads with different opinions as to why other financial institutions have not issued Forms 1099 in the exact same factual circumstances.

A long time ago a mutual fund that awarded frequent flier miles to investors in the mutual fund was instructed by the IRS in a letter ruling to inform the investors as to the FMV of the miles so the recipient could reduce his or her tax basis in the mutual fund. This might not result in current taxation but would likely increase tax liability in future years when the holder sold the mutual fund shares. It could be presumed (but no one knows for a fact) that the mutual fund was American Beacon and it would be interesting to know what value, if any, American Beacon assigned to the AA miles. This information would have been in the annual communication to investors but it would have been a long time ago, and no one seems to know what value might have been assigned.