In summary:
- Alexander and Laura Strashny filed income tax return due in 2017, but unable to pay
- they sent IRS letters proposing to pay the liability in iinstallments over a period of 6 years
- IRS received the proposal recorded it and put in in pending status
- As of December 2018, the outstanding liability + interest exceeded $1 million
- IRS sent petition notice "Intent to Seize Your Assets" and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing.
- Petitioners timely requested a CDPhearing, expressinginterest in an installment agreement (IA) and attaching a copyof their previously submitted Forms 433-A and 9465. They did notcheck the boxindicating thattheycould not pay the balance, and they did notdispute theirunderlyingliability for 2017.
- SO review the case and saw that they have a huge cryptocurrency investment
- SO eceived from petitioners’ repre-sentative a copy of their 2018 tax return, which reported wages exceeding $200,000, and investment statements showing cryptocurrency assets valued over$7 million. During the conference the SO noted that petitioners were currently
- 4-[*4] withdrawing$19,000 per month from their cryptocurrency account, and she asked why they could not liquidate or borrow against those assets in order to discharge their tax liabilityin full.
- Lawyers for the petitioners argue that they are unable to draw on their cryptocurrency account to pay their liability.
- On June 25, 2019, the IRS issued a notice of determination sustaining the proposed levy, rejecting petitioners’ request for an IA, and stating that “[l]evyaction is permitted 30 daysafter the rejection.
https://www.ustaxcourt.gov/USTCInOP/OpinionViewer.aspx?ID=12258
There's no denying that the petitioners have money to pay to settled their tax liabilities. But they can't withdraw it in a timely manner, maybe they are waiting for the price to go up and make profit to at least lessen the damage. What are your thoughts on this?
Are you willing to sell your crypto to pay our debts or just go on settle it in months or years?
Interestingly USA has been pretty developed with cryptocurrency too now. They have defined cryptocurrency as financial asset therefore it's their right to seize them for recovery of their taxes. Moreover even if it wasn't a financial asset they can seize any asset they want.
There's no denying that the petitioners have money to pay to settled their tax liabilities. But they can't withdraw it in a timely manner, maybe they are waiting for the price to go up and make profit to at least lessen the damage. What are your thoughts on this?
Are you willing to sell your crypto to pay our debts or just go on settle it in months or years?
It seems pretty clear to me that this has little to do with cryptocurrency. They simply are doing whatever they can to avoid paying $1 million dollars to the government. Wouldn't you? They won't win, but at least they tried.
True indeed it makes no sense to speculate on price going up to pay you taxes in future. You know there are huge interests penalty and prosecutions involved. They might be thinking of declaring some bankruptcy or something in real world then after getting the immunity would withdraw their crypto holdings to get a new life. You just can't say this for every debt you have to calculate the additional costs involved in deferment of debt when you decide to do so.