In the "Ask For Help" column at turbotax.com

"I invested in what later turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. How do I report the loss?"

This initially struck me as funny. The more I thought about it, the more unfunny and banal it became. (This is just one example of the advantages of an unexamined life...)

Anyway, can we fix it? Yes!

The question would be funnier if:

• I invested in a Ponzi scheme, and...
• How do I report the income from my Ponzi scheme?
  
• Can I invest my Roth IRA in a Ponzi scheme?
• This year I started a new Ponzi scheme. Should I be sending 1099-INTs to my investors?
  

See, it's the a priori knowledge that the investment is a Ponzi that would make it funny. Otherwise it's just someone getting burned by a "too good to be true" investment and then asking afterward about the income tax implications, and that just isn't funny at all.