Phred Phortunate won his state lotto two years ago. His lotto ticket was worth $ 10 million, which was payable in 20 annual installments of $ 500,000 each. Phred paid $ 1 for the winning ticket. The lotto in Phred’s state does not allow winners to receive their payout in a lump sum. Phred wanted all the money now, so he assigned his future lotto winnings to an Unscrupulous Finance Company (UFC) for a discounted price of $ 4.5 million. Assignment of lotto winnings is permitted by Phred’s state lotto. Phred filed his tax return and reported the assignment of the lotto winnings as a capital gain ($ 4.5 million-$ 1 basis) taxable at a 15 percent rate.

a. List as many possible tax research issues as you can to determine whether Phred correctly reported his lotto winnings.

b. After completing your list of tax research issues, list the keywords you might use to construct an online tax research query.