That's a really good point! But where do you find the official exchange rates to use? Is there an IRS approved source?

The IRS doesn't specify one official source for currency exchange rates, but they generally accept rates from major financial institutions or government sources. I typically use the Treasury Department's rates at https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/treasury-reporting-rates-exchange/ or sometimes the Federal Reserve rates. You can also use rates from major financial publications like Bloomberg or the Wall Street Journal. Just be consistent in which source you use for all your calculations and keep documentation of where you got the rates in case of questions later.

I had an IRS inquiry about manually entered stock sales a couple years ago. They just asked me to provide the purchase and sale confirmations to verify the cost basis and proceeds I'd reported. Wasn't a big deal since I had kept good records. They accepted everything without adjustments once I provided the documentation.

Wait, are you saying I might have to pay US taxes on money I haven't even taken out of my company as dividends yet? That sounds terrifying. How do I figure out if GILTI applies to my Thai company?

Yes, that's exactly what GILTI can do in certain situations. It was designed to prevent US taxpayers from indefinitely deferring US tax by keeping profits in foreign corporations. The calculation is complex, but essentially if your Thai company's income exceeds a certain return on its tangible assets, the excess could be considered GILTI and taxable to you personally even if the money stays in the company. To determine if GILTI applies, you'll need to look at your company's income, the value of its tangible depreciable business property, and Thailand's corporate tax rates. This is definitely an area where professional help is valuable. Form 8992 is used to report GILTI. You might be able to reduce the impact through something called the "high-tax exception" if Thailand's corporate tax rate is high enough, or through the Section 962 election that someone mentioned earlier. Both strategies can potentially reduce the tax impact of GILTI.

The Transition Tax was a one-time tax on accumulated foreign earnings as part of the 2017 tax reform. If you've already dealt with that (or started your business after that), you shouldn't have to worry about it again. Now we just have to deal with GILTI every year instead! :-/

I haven't tried different browsers yet, that's a good suggestion. I've been using Chrome this whole time. Did you have this specific issue with the vehicle info disappearing and Firefox fixed it? Or was it a different problem?

I had almost the exact same issue - the vehicle information would disappear whenever I navigated away from Schedule C. Switching to Firefox completely resolved it for me. I think it might have something to do with how different browsers handle the form's JavaScript. Make sure you clear your cache and cookies before trying in the new browser. Also, when entering the vehicle info in Firefox, I made sure to click the specific "Save" button in that section before moving to any other part of the form.

This is really helpful info! Do you know if there are any other sections of the Free File Fillable Forms that have known bugs this year? I'm about to start my taxes and wondering if I should just use different software entirely.

While rescheduling will help with 280E issues, banking is a separate problem governed by different regulations. The SAFE Banking Act would be needed to fully address financial services access. That said, some banks might be more willing to work with cannabis businesses after rescheduling since it reduces certain legal risks. Still, expect many institutions to remain cautious until there's explicit banking legislation.

Thanks for that clarification. I've been trying to explain to clients that these are separate issues. Do you have any recommendations for cash-heavy businesses in the meantime? The lack of banking creates so many tax reporting and documentation problems.

There hasn't been any official indication about FinCEN guideline updates, but it would be logical to expect changes there as well. Rescheduling should trigger a cascade of regulatory reviews across multiple agencies. The current SAR filing requirements were designed for Schedule I substances, so they should theoretically be revised to reflect the new status. However, until something is officially announced, financial institutions will likely continue following current guidelines. These administrative processes tend to move slowly and often with minimal coordination between agencies. I'd recommend continuing to follow current compliance protocols while staying alert for updates.

Can you really just decide which year to count income in? I thought you had to report income in the year you receive it, not when you decide to invoice for it?

It depends on your accounting method. If you're on a cash basis (which most small businesses and freelancers are), you report income when you receive it, not when you earn it. So if you complete work in December but don't send the invoice until January, you'll receive and report that income in the following tax year. This is totally legitimate as long as you're not artificially manipulating when you actually receive payments. You can't deposit a check and not record it - that would be illegal. But you can time when you bill clients and when you make business purchases within reason.

I've used it for clients with seasonal businesses. It's more paperwork (Form 2210 Schedule AI), but it can be worth it if your income is heavily concentrated in certain periods. Basically, you calculate your required payment for each quarter based on what you actually earned that quarter, not 1/4 of your annual income.