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Topic: Bitcoin Is Property Not Currency - page 5. (Read 14762 times)

member
Activity: 63
Merit: 10
March 27, 2014, 05:40:20 AM
If you buy a bitcoin for $100 and trade it for a bitcoin bought by someone else for $1000 then buy something with it for $550, what is your net gain/loss?

Buy a bitcoin for $100 - no tax implications for the buyer. There is no law on what you can buy something for. It's the seller who might have gains/losses that are taxable.

You trade your bitcoin with another person's bitcoin - no tax implications. Nobody gained or lost anything, just a trade on EQUAL VALUE assets. Both coins are worth whatever btc was trading that day. Nobody won or lost. Your newly traded btc still has a value of $100. The $1000 price tag stays with the original owner, not you.

You buy something for $550 - you realized a $450 gain ($550 - $100). You owe taxes on that $450 gain.
full member
Activity: 120
Merit: 100
March 27, 2014, 05:31:21 AM
It's a bit vague at the moment..

Might need someone who is actually familiar with bitcoin to help the IRS out.
member
Activity: 63
Merit: 10
March 27, 2014, 05:27:37 AM
Cheesy Can you guys base those earnings on MtGox rates, $122 wasn't it when last traded.

Or do you have to base it on the price of an US Exchange  Wink

Now what if there was only one US Exchange and it was like a fraction of the real price (no buy orders obviously).

Are those coins Earned oversea's ? or in the clouds ?

So much to go wrong here.. Shocked

The IRS has dealt with issues like these for decades. This is nothing new, and doesn't require any new laws. I work with taxes and deal with these issues all the time.

You can calculate your earnings however you want, and whatever exchange you want, as long as the IRS deems it was a 'reasonable' choice. If most exchanges are buying coins for $550, and there is one that is buying them at $122, and you 'chose' the $122 to sell at, this will seem suspicious. The IRS will then modify your numbers to the $550 range and you will owe taxes and penalties based on the difference.

People have intentionally set up fake exchanges for other goods in the past (like to appraise jewelry incorrectly) to get by the IRS, and when the IRS finds out about it, usually those people serve jail time.

It doesn't matter WHERE you earned the btc - if you are US citizen, it's taxed.

It's not that hard to understand. And you can't 'trick' the IRS or use some funny way of calculating anything. The IRS is smart and has been battling these issues for decades. You can't fight them. If they say you did it wrong, you did it wrong and must pay the fines and penalties or you will go to jail. It's not like a court.

The IRS can't track every little thing you do with btc, but if you are audited, the IRS will look into your history and purchases, talk to your friends and associates, and look at anything suspicious. If you bought a new car, but didn't have any money to do so, this will look suspicious and they will claim you used btc to do it. The IRS will charge you the taxes and penalties on it and also may charge you with tax fraud along with a jail sentence. The IRS does not need proof - YOU need to prove how you bought the car.

member
Activity: 63
Merit: 10
March 27, 2014, 05:18:11 AM
So who is going to have fun with the IRS by sending one satoshi back and forth between wallets millions of times and then reporting all those transactions on their taxes?

I don't think you understand how the IRS works.

All the IRS cares about is the final dollar amount. If you tell the IRS that you owe $0, and then attach thousands of pages of documentation (which you'll be paying to send to them), they'll just throw that in a binder and file it away and never look at it. YOU will be doing all the work for nothing.

sr. member
Activity: 1316
Merit: 254
Sugars.zone | DatingFi - Earn for Posting
March 27, 2014, 05:16:14 AM
If you mined a coin at $1200 then you technically received property worth $1200 that is now worth $600.

When can you realize the loss?

This is hurting my head.

If your in a foreign country and using a US pool, are you liable for earning on property in the US?

Surely this is virtual property and a virtual problem.

If you use a off shore pool and exchange, then your property is outside US until you exchange that foreign currency for US dollars is it not ?

OK, you have overseas property gains by US terminology but in that country it may be a virtual property.
hero member
Activity: 546
Merit: 500
hm
March 27, 2014, 05:07:57 AM
No. It's an accounting problem.

If you bought 1 BTC at $10 and another at $100 and the bitcoin price is $100 when you buy a $200 shirt with 2 BTC then you have a capital gain of $90 which is now realized. If that $10 BTC was kept for a year before the shirt was bought the $90 profit would be taxed at an income tax rate, perhaps 40%, otherwise it would be more like 20%.

really? Holding longer means a higher tax rate? Normally it is the other way around. In Germany Bitcoin is a currency and you pay 25% as a capital gain in the first year and after one year you pay nothing (like with every currency. Under one year is considered as speculation, trading).
Now on assets we pay 25% flat on every gain, no matter how long you hold it. This is new since 2008. Before that it was 30% tax within the first year and nothing with more than one year - if you are a individual private saver.
hero member
Activity: 546
Merit: 500
hm
March 27, 2014, 05:03:37 AM
This regulation is no big deal. Question: Is there anything else considered as currency in the US, except of national currencies?


Won't this affect Bitcoin's fungibility ?

One Bitcoin won't be the same as another Bitcoin.. since there will be tax to pay on the capital gain.

If you bought a BTC at $10 and another at $100, and now you wanted to spend one to buy a $100 shirt, when the price is 100$/btc.

The 2 bitcoins have different value now.. 

Is that what they are saying ?


I think you have a first in first out. If you sell one btc or buy something with it, there will be no tax at the price of 100$.

legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1006
100 satoshis -> ISO code
March 27, 2014, 05:01:00 AM
Won't this affect Bitcoin's fungibility ?

One Bitcoin won't be the same as another Bitcoin.. since there will be tax to pay on the capital gain.

If you bought a BTC at $10 and another at $100, and now you wanted to spend one to buy a $100 shirt, when the price is 100$/btc.

The 2 bitcoins have different value now..  

Is that what they are saying ?


No. It's an accounting problem.

If you bought 1 BTC at $10 and another at $100 and the bitcoin price is $100 when you buy a $200 shirt with 2 BTC then you have a capital gain of $90 which is now realized. If that $10 BTC was kept for less than a year before the shirt was bought the $90 profit would be taxed at an income tax rate, perhaps 40%, otherwise it would be more like 20%.

Reminds me of this:
 
hero member
Activity: 718
Merit: 545
March 27, 2014, 04:46:03 AM
Won't this affect Bitcoin's fungibility ?

One Bitcoin won't be the same as another Bitcoin.. since there will be tax to pay on the capital gain.

If you bought a BTC at $10 and another at $100, and now you wanted to spend one to buy a $100 shirt, when the price is 100$/btc.

The 2 bitcoins have different value now.. 

Is that what they are saying ?
sr. member
Activity: 1316
Merit: 254
Sugars.zone | DatingFi - Earn for Posting
March 27, 2014, 04:23:09 AM
 Cheesy Can you guys base those earnings on MtGox rates, $122 wasn't it when last traded.

Or do you have to base it on the price of an US Exchange  Wink

Now what if there was only one US Exchange and it was like a fraction of the real price (no buy orders obviously).

Are those coins Earned oversea's ? or in the clouds ?

So much to go wrong here.. Shocked
sr. member
Activity: 502
Merit: 251
March 27, 2014, 12:48:33 AM
Are you people retarted? "I won't pay my taxes" Har har har... Good luck with that you stupid cunts.

It's obedient cunts like yourself why the world economy is up shit creek.

"Great for bitcoin", "I like paying taxes". Amazing what you read, slaves will be slaves.

Let's go chimps, evolve already. I wanna see liberty in my lifetime.
newbie
Activity: 5
Merit: 0
March 27, 2014, 12:45:34 AM
So who is going to have fun with the IRS by sending one satoshi back and forth between wallets millions of times and then reporting all those transactions on their taxes?
donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1079
Gerald Davis
March 27, 2014, 12:45:05 AM

A US citizen (and in most cases residents) owes US taxes regardless of where the taxable event occurs.  It doesn't matter if you leave the US and NEVER come back.  The only way to avoid US taxation is to renounce your citizenship (which generally requires you to already have citizenship in another country).  Now if you are asking if you could "get away" with traveling to russia to do cash deals for rubbles and then laundering those funds though a bunch of offshore accounts?   Maybe but that is asking "will I get caught", not "is this legal".  Honestly if it is a small amount of money it probably isn't worth the trouble and if it is a huge amount of money speak to a good offshore lawyer and CPA.  Tax avoidance not tax evasion. 

Actually i was told that i can still keep my citizenship and only pay tax to the primary country if i only stay in US for less than xx days.

Many dual citizens do this.

Well the thread was about bitcoin capital gains.  Foreign Earned Income "can" be excluded from US taxes but the key word is earned income (i.e. salary or wages).   Sadly capital gains, interest, dividends, royalties, etc do not fall under FEIE.  It is also possible the US has a tax treaty with another nation where foreign paid taxes reduce (possibly to $0) the US taxes owed.  Of course this doesn't save the US taxpayer any money (if you owe $10,000 in US capital gains the only way you pay Uncle Sam $0 is if you paid >=$10,000 taxes to another nation) but it doesn't prevent double taxation (paying $10,000 to France and then having to pay $10,000 to US for the same capital gain).
legendary
Activity: 2590
Merit: 3015
Welt Am Draht
March 26, 2014, 09:11:50 PM
Are you people retarted? "I won't pay my taxes" Har har har... Good luck with that you silly sausages.

Have you considered going to get some fresh air rather than abusing everyone in sight?

It would suit The Man very nicely to steer it into being a commodity rather than currency. Lots of money to be made, little threat to the dollar as a day to day medium of exchange.
newbie
Activity: 42
Merit: 0
March 26, 2014, 08:35:04 PM
 Are you people retarted? "I won't pay my taxes" Har har har... Good luck with that you stupid cunts.
hero member
Activity: 658
Merit: 500
March 26, 2014, 08:33:06 PM

A US citizen (and in most cases residents) owes US taxes regardless of where the taxable event occurs.  It doesn't matter if you leave the US and NEVER come back.  The only way to avoid US taxation is to renounce your citizenship (which generally requires you to already have citizenship in another country).  Now if you are asking if you could "get away" with traveling to russia to do cash deals for rubbles and then laundering those funds though a bunch of offshore accounts?   Maybe but that is asking "will I get caught", not "is this legal".  Honestly if it is a small amount of money it probably isn't worth the trouble and if it is a huge amount of money speak to a good offshore lawyer and CPA.  Tax avoidance not tax evasion. 

Actually i was told that i can still keep my citizenship and only pay tax to the primary country if i only stay in US for less than xx days.

Many dual citizens do this.

legendary
Activity: 2296
Merit: 1014
March 26, 2014, 08:30:41 PM
no matter how you will call it, bitcoin is power
Interestingly the markets still don't seem to care...
its like chaos theory, you can't predict it if this news matter or not and to how many people.
legendary
Activity: 3920
Merit: 2349
Eadem mutata resurgo
March 26, 2014, 08:06:35 PM
Question, How is the IRS going to go after all who are mining BTC and how will the IRS go after all of us who purchase goods with BTC. And how will the IRS go after the ones who gamble and receive earnings with BTC  Huh

What if we all refuse to give any information to the IRS regarding our BTC trades?

I say we End The IRS and EndTheFed!!

they will make an example of a few people who will be audited comprehensively.
once you hear on the news some guy got 20 years in jail for tax fraud because he didn't report his bitcoin capital gains properly you will think twice before attempting this.
if you refuse to give the IRS any information they will throw you in jail obviously...
 

the IRS is already guilty as sin for selectively targetting Tea Party groups and other Libertarian-minded organisations in politically motivated ferocious, terrifying audits that drag on for months and sometimes years ... what's changed again?

Once the war starts it may behoove you to recall who fired the first shots?

Edit: celebrating and cheering on of State sanctioned violence, intimidation and threats of violence for what are essentially acts of civil disobedience is disgusting and downright ghoulish, on a moral par with the Nazis cheering the persecution of Jews.
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
A pumpkin mines 27 hours a night
March 26, 2014, 07:56:34 PM
Interestingly the markets still don't seem to care...
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 252
March 26, 2014, 07:47:14 PM
What if this property is moved oversea and never exchanged at home country? If people avoid centralized exchanges where all the bitcoins can be traced to person, then there is no way to properly identify the ownership of each coin

There are lots of ways to cheat on your taxes.  It is called tax evasion.  There are also lots of ways to legitimately reduce your tax liability.  It is called tax avoidance.  How difficult it would be for the IRS to catch you cheating is a completely different topic than the tax liability.

Tracking cash is also hard.  An employer could pay all his employees in cash, keep fake books, and cheat on his taxes that way.   It doesn't make the tax liability go away.  So keep in mind when you are asking a question, which question are you asking.

A US citizen (and in most cases residents) owes US taxes regardless of where the taxable event occurs.  It doesn't matter if you leave the US and NEVER come back.  The only way to avoid US taxation is to renounce your citizenship (which generally requires you to already have citizenship in another country).  Now if you are asking if you could "get away" with traveling to russia to do cash deals for rubbles and then laundering those funds though a bunch of offshore accounts?   Maybe but that is asking "will I get caught", not "is this legal".  Honestly if it is a small amount of money it probably isn't worth the trouble and if it is a huge amount of money speak to a good offshore lawyer and CPA.  Tax avoidance not tax evasion. 

Excellent summary of evasion vs. avoidance.
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