Otherwise why did the IRS pay out $30MM in refunds for “Slavery Credits” that had no basis in law?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-pays-30m-in-slavery-credits...
There are literally thousands of examples of things like this.
It's easy to find a small museum to donate small amounts of artwork to at an inflated value. But what charity wants NFTs?
And donating intellectual property to charities with high claimed values isn't anything new. That's why in 2004 the American Jobs Creation Act required that any donated intellectual property be valued at the lesser of its cost basis and its fair market value. (See: 26 USC § 170(e))
So in your example, each would accrue a $10,000 income tax liability by their sale and be able to write off a $10,000 gain by their donation's basis, accomplishing nothing.
I attended an event last night in a museum where over $150k was raised for local Charities by auctioning off NFT Art. It will probably become more common than one might imagine.
The tax fraud schemes make sense for now. Party A makes 10 NFTs and sells 1 to Party B for $10,000. Party B makes 10 NFTs and sells 1 to Party A for $10,000.
They both then donate their remaining NFTs to a charity and take a $90,000 tax write-off each.
Will work until the IRS is able to hire the additional 80,000 enforcement agents they’ve asked for.