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Topic: Have people been forced to pay tax over Bitcoin yet? - page 9. (Read 5519 times)

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Over the last couple of months, due to value of my small holding of BTC I purchased in 2014 and the massive rise of value, I have taken a deep dive into the prevailing opinion of CPA and tax attorneys regarding bitcoin and crypto currency by the IRS. I am going to quote some of the more important things to consider if you live and pay taxes in the US.

These are a few excerpts I have pulled from well researched paper addressing the exact issues the traders, miners and regular citizens looking to invest in the crypto coin space face every time to engage with their coin, tokens and crypto portfolio. These are excerpts pulled from longer articles, and a link to the original article is supplies and it is worth reading the entire essays.

What I discovered in my recent deep research dive is that the various decisions and non-decisions made over the last few years by the IRS on not well defined and confusing as hell.  Basically, the IRS wants it cake and wants to eat t as well.  

"So, an argument could be made that the IRS is treating cryptocurrency as both property and currency.

Reeling from this dichotomy, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants recommended in a June 2016 letter[3] to the IRS that cryptocurrency accounts be reported in the summary information section of Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, which breaks with the IRS’s 2014 guidance that cryptocurrency be treated as property.

If a taxpayer were to hold gold overseas, which is considered property by the IRS and, more specifically, a commodity, there is nothing in the Tax Code, that requires the taxpayer to report the value of the gold to the IRS every year. Further, if a taxpayer owns residential property, rental property, or any other asset deemed property overseas, there also is no requirement for the taxpayer to report the fair market value of that property to the IRS.

In the case of cryptocurrency, we have a dichotomy where the IRS is treating the currency as property for income "

http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/12380583/the-classification-of-bitcoin-and-cryptocurrency-by-the-irs

 
"Like any investment, individuals venturing into the cryptocurrency space must also learn about the tax repercussions of their investment decisions. In this tutorial, we’ll examine the implications of IRS Notice 2014-21, a set of guidelines and rules for investors which was first issued in early 2014.

One of the major implications of IRS Notice 2014-21 is that the U.S. government has decided to treat cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as property instead of as currency. The result is that a wide-ranging group of bitcoin stakeholders—everyone from consumers and merchants to bitcoin miners and service providers—will now fall under the larger umbrella of bitcoin “investors” in some way or another, and this group will now have to deal with complicated and sometimes daunting reporting requirements.

The IRS requires that taxpayers report the fair market value of bitcoin holdings for the date that the currency was received, not for another time. Thus, as long as Max is able to determine his fair market value in a “reasonable manner which is consistently applied,” he maintains leeway when it comes to determining his cost bases. Thus, he could make a determination of fair market value using a daily high price from one exchange, so long as he didn’t also use a daily low value from a different exchange as a reference point for his sales. This would artificially reduce his tax liability.

Bitcoin Tax Guide: Trading Gains And Losses - LIFO, FIFO, Offsetting Lots

The fact that bitcoin traders have the right to calculate their cost bases using one of several different methodologies makes the questions of tax reporting and enforcement even more complicated. Because bitcoin is taxed as personal property, investors have the option to sell their assets on a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis, a Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) basis, or they can sell specific tax lots that are most efficient via the “specific share identification” method that is commonly used in stock trading. Which of these options a trader decides to use may have a major impact on the calculations of both long- and short-term capital gains."

Certain digital currency exchange platforms automatically incorporate FIFO or LIFO methods for investor clients, regardless of whether one method or the other (or neither) is the most tax-friendly means of tracking cost basis. Investors might prefer to sell off a set of bitcoins purchased at a different time as a means of writing off ordinary income, then sell a different lot in order to realize a smaller long-term capital gain. The result can be significant tax savings based on a straightforward and legal change in personal accounting.

Practically, though, “specific identification” sub-accounting could be either out of the hands of the individual investor or impossible. It’s unlikely that exchanges and wallets will work to ensure that trades are executed in a way that optimizes tax returns. An investor would have to specify exactly which bitcoins to sell and at which time, keeping track of any new transactions with time-stamps in the process. Combining different wallet addresses into a single account, for example, could completely jeopardize this process. The result is that the entire process of keeping track of bitcoin trades for tax purposes is incredibly complicated, and it’s likely that many individual investors (regardless of whether they have help from tax professionals) will incur unnecessary tax liabilities in the process.

Bitcoin IRS Tax Guide For Individual Filers
https://www.investopedia.com/university/definitive-bitcoin-tax-guide-dont-let-irs-snow-you/

Crypto to Crrypto

How Do Taxes Work With Cryptocurrency? – Paying Taxes on Cryptocurrency in the United States


"...this means that you can’t trade one cryptocurrency for another and defer gains and losses year-to-year that way. For example: you can’t buy a bitcoin in 2017, trade it to litecoin in 2017, sell the litecoin in 2018, and then pay taxes then. You have to pay taxes each time a cryptocurrency is converted into another currency.

This can have some complicated tax implications where you can end up owing on profits in one year, but see those gains wiped out the next year, and then are unable to write off gains against losses because you are dealing with separate investments in separate tax years! In other words, you could, in the worst case, lose all your money and still get a giant tax bill if you trade a lot of cryptocurrencies over the course of a two year period with heavy gains one year and heavy losses the other.

If you are going to trade cryptocurrencies, consider every trade from cryptocurrency to cryptocurrency, or from cryptocurrency to USD, as its own transaction for tax purposes (each transaction from one coin to another is a taxable event where the fair-market value of profits and losses must be calculated in USD).
You can write of capital gains and losses in a year (writing off real estate, against gold, against one cryptocurrency, against another cryptocurrency for example), and things like the 30-day rule (and other such rules) should by all means apply, but you can’t treat different cryptocurrencies as “like-kind properties” and defer gains and losses into another calendar year that way."

http://cryptocurrencyfacts.com/the-basics-of-cryptocurrencies-and-taxes/

Virtual Currency and Section 1031 – A Retraction and New Position

But since the release of Notice 2014-21, the IRS and the federal government as a whole have shown a considerable amount of hostility toward virtual currency.  Last year, the IRS issued a hotly contested John Doe summons directed at Coinbase, a virtual currency exchange. Recently, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has cracked down on virtual currency exchanges that have not registered with the federal government as a Money Services Business.

The recent regulatory enforcement constriction as it relates to virtual currency appears to evidence a shift in the government’s position and suggests the IRS is beginning to view cryptocurrency more like actual currency and less like investment property. Our change in opinion with regard to Section 1031 applicability is a result of this apparent shift. A taxpayer exchanging Euros for U.S. Dollars would not be able to rely on Section 1031 to defer any currency exchange gain and so it appears that the same could be said about exchanging one type of virtual currency for another.

https://klasing-associates.com/virtual-currency-section-1031-retraction-new-position/

Cryptocurrency Traders Risk IRS Trouble With Like-Kind Exchanges
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/08/15/cryptocurrency-traders-risk-irs-trouble-with-like-kind-exchanges/#51d255a026a8

How To Report Bitcoin Cash And Avoid IRS Trouble
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/08/04/how-to-report-bitcoin-cash-and-avoid-irs-trouble/#

Top 3 Legal Ways to Bypass Bitcoin Capital Gains Taxes in the US
https://themerkle.com/top-3-legal-ways-to-bypass-bitcoin-capital-gains-taxes-in-the-us/

Do I need to pay taxes if I sit on (do not use) bitcoins?
https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/47921/do-i-need-to-pay-taxes-if-i-sit-on-do-not-use-bitcoins

How Specifically The EU & US Intend To Tax Your Bitcoin
https://news.bitcoin.com/specifically-eu-us-intend-tax-bitcoin/

IRS Uses Chainalysis to Track Down Bitcoin Tax Cheats
https://cointelegraph.com/news/irs-uses-chainalysis-to-track-down-bitcoin-tax-cheats

IRS To Go After Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash Profits, What to Expect
https://cointelegraph.com/news/irs-to-go-after-bitcoin-and-bitcoin-cash-profits-what-to-expect

Tax compliance
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Tax_compliance#Trading

How do I report digital currency activity on my taxes?
https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1496488-taxes-faq

So, I truly apologize for sparking the fear, loathing, denial and delusion that taxes produces in many people. Here in the US it pays to hire accountants that specialize in the various fields of investment, stock traders, and the like.  These traditional professions have developers intricate tax strategies, investment schemes and are forced to adhere to regulatory policy that keeps them from getting into serious legal and tax issues.

The world of the cryptocurrency exchanges has be the Wild West, with basically no regulatory structure (for the most part). The interesting fact that came up in my research is that when the IRS classified bitcoin as a form of property opposed to a currency is put bitcoin into a class where every single transaction is considered a taxable event, subject to long or short capital gains.  According to the IRS, this includes crypto to crypto trades and sales.  It also means that if you were to buy a cup of coffee using bitcoin, that is a taxable event subject to capital gains.

This is by design, and in making the rulings on crypto over the last 5 years clearly demonstrate the hostile posture the IRS has taken against bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Unreported capital gains equals tax evasion, which is serious business that carried fines, penalties, back interest and potentially prison. With the IRS 'John Doe' fishing expedition lawsuit against Coinbase, the IRS has an agenda to identify and prosecute a few suckers in high profile trails as a public example and PR campaign,  Since the IRS is currently under budgetary assault by the US House of Representative, the skinny on the street is that this is battle that the IRS cannot afford to lose.  They need a high profile demonstration of muscular power by making examples out of a few crypto players.

Of course, this is only one agency in the US Govt.  There are a few others that understand the serious threat to global financial system that the sudden interest, popularity, financial commitment and belief that bitcoin has ignited in the people.

This is my overall take away from the volumes is read trying to interpret specifics on the current IRS position and policy regarding the taxing of cryptocurrencies.

  • You don't owe any traditional capital gains if you don't cash out your bitcoin profits into fiat currency.
  • Bitcoin Cash is magic money, however the IRS has not made a policy around that event deciding whether it is a stock split, or pure capital gains.
  • There is no clear IRS policy at this point as to whether Crypto to Crypto trades and transactions fall under the IRS purview.  Some tax experts say yes, other are not sure as the IRS waffles on policy.
  • In the case of hacked exchanges, stolen coins, locked out wallets, the IRS does not care.  You are on the hook for whatever tax you owe on the coin.
  • Charity and Donations: Due to the policy of bitcoin being property and assets of value, opposed to currency, both you as well as the receiving charity are on the hook for taxes.  I kid you not.


If you have made significant money over the last few years mining, buying, trading, and speculating on bitcoin, before you go to cash out in fiat US dollars, find a tax attorney that works with the various aspects of capital gains, wealth management, and setting up an LLC that will give you a structure in which to maximize your capital and minimize your tax exposure. Doing something like this takes planning and lead time and will allow you to legally enjoy your new found wealth.

There is one other option that I discovered. Become a full time resident of Puerto Rico (183 days of the year)

Move to Puerto Rico and Pay Zero Capital Gains Tax
http://premieroffshore.com/move-puerto-rico-pay-zero-capital-gains-tax/  

Anyway, I found a pretty great tool that will give you the ability to track down important exchange transactions and the relative value, gains and losses of your trade history.  It claims to be anonymous  and the data can be destroyed after you has run your own personal financial forensic trade reports.

Your personal Profit / Loss Portfolio Monitor and Tax Tracker for all Digital Coins
https://cointracking.info/

Good luck on this wild ride, if the last few days have not been wild enough ($14.5K), the next few weeks are going to be mind boggling!

~ Bobby Ocean



sr. member
Activity: 590
Merit: 258
To be honest, Taxation is a life blood of the government which all revenues collected are paid for the expenditures and infrastructure. All things are taxable even up to the bitcoins.
There is always a final tax that deducted to your earning that you don’t know.
member
Activity: 62
Merit: 10
I am going to start cashing out in about 2 weeks. Tax season is in April so let's wait
full member
Activity: 406
Merit: 105
In our country bitcoin is still not fully legalized so governments can't put tax for having or using it. For now, it still good as we dont pay taxes for buying or spending bitcoins. I just hope our government will never put tax in bitcoin because some governments are corrupt.
full member
Activity: 798
Merit: 109
https://bmy.guide
I don't have an idea if this is really happening but in my own situation I haven't experience paying tax for using bitcoin, I am using a web wallet and if ever I need FIAT I convert my BTC to it and cash out through remittance, I think pay amount of transaction is according to fee of the remittance center and I don't think if it has tax.
Well, I don't have also experienced in paying taxes with bitcoin. I think bitcoin not responsible to pay taxes because of being virtual currency or no one big company behind this bitcoin who responsibled to pay tax. I think in paying in market exchange that's the taxes of bitcoin if you withdraw your bitcoin they have a charges fee on your wallet.
Besides when we exchanged to fiat our bitcoin in my country there's no charges happened when we claimed at bank or any remittances.
full member
Activity: 420
Merit: 171
I don't have an idea if this is really happening but in my own situation I haven't experience paying tax for using bitcoin, I am using a web wallet and if ever I need FIAT I convert my BTC to it and cash out through remittance, I think pay amount of transaction is according to fee of the remittance center and I don't think if it has tax.
hero member
Activity: 2268
Merit: 789
Quite curious if this has been the case. Obviously I'm hoping it haven't been the case.

I haven't seen anyone paid tax using bitcoin here in my country especially when you consider that most of the population here does not even know about bitcoin. Due to that case, I guess that our government is slightly lenient when it comes to the implementation and execution of laws relevant to the usage of bitcoin. But according to my colleague who interviewed the lawyers at our BSP (Central Bank), bitcoin in the Philippines is being categorized as 'property', thus making it not subject to legal tender (paying for debts). Also, the bitcoins that you earn from mining fall under the category of 'other income' making it taxable. The problem is, I do not know anyone here who mines bitcoin due to the exception of having a super powered computer.
full member
Activity: 266
Merit: 100
Forced is a strong word. But actually, yes they kinda are. Any form of income, may it be from investment or trading or mining digital currency, is subject to inxome tax. However, in the case of my country, filing and paying of income tax is somehow on honesty basis.

With that, most people tend to no longer file their earnings from Bitcoin activities since it is not being traced. That's why some government are not supporting it, because they are not getting a profit out of it.
Same here in our country, it's like a self service. We can hide our bitcoins and alts without being known by the government and thanks to its anonymity.

I think taxing bitcoin is justifiable for the government since many people are earning from these and some become a millionaire on their own country just by trading so I believe it's not force but rather implemented.
sr. member
Activity: 588
Merit: 250
In my country, ICO was conducted ,so the amount one earned through it was taxable by government ,because of  amount rosen .Even app they use has to pa taxes to government to run their services.so you can't say it was forced,one has to follow some rules set up by government .I have not seen any case though of any forced tax payment.
sr. member
Activity: 1792
Merit: 264
Tax imposed when it is legal but although bitcoin is not legal the transactions fees or charge serves us a tax in bitcoin when we withdraw it.There is no authority or legal regulations we should follow that they need a tax on bitcoin.It is controlled by us and not in the government or politicians.

Where I live they say we must declare it as an asset, Bitcoin for them is nothing in particular, just an asset like any other because it has a value and everything that has a value must be declared and taxed. I don't know if everywhere it works this way...

But the point is that Bitcoins aren't being tracked for banal reasons like that, so only criminals are calling more attention for them, people who use Bitcoin for illegal activities, legit users are secured. I have seen even countries which banned Bitcoin saying it's hard to track all its users, so sooner or later they will have to change the policy.

Some government try to legalize bitcoin because they want to track down bitcoin transaction's flow especially on corruptor case.
They can control in order to prevent something bad so it's reasonable for them to legalize bitcoin as soon as possible although some people may not agree !
some agree and some do not agree to that, if the government is able to legalize bitcoin then everyone who uses bitcoin will be taxed larger. this can cause bitcoin users to feel uncomfortable because the government regulates the use of bitcoin to everyone who uses it.
jr. member
Activity: 32
Merit: 3
Quite curious if this has been the case. Obviously I'm hoping it haven't been the case.
That not happen yet and i don't think will be applied soon because bitcoin and other altscoin depend on security plus anonymous payment within the blochchain but if you plan to use regulated exchange like poloniex and other sites registered under USA\EU rules perhaps some day might request TAX.
If this is the case, then can you please confirm when bitcoin exchange will be available in money exchange outlets like "Western Union" and others. And please confirm that during exchange are there any taxes applicable or just the exchange charges.
Thank you!
sr. member
Activity: 630
Merit: 272
Tax imposed when it is legal but although bitcoin is not legal the transactions fees or charge serves us a tax in bitcoin when we withdraw it.There is no authority or legal regulations we should follow that they need a tax on bitcoin.It is controlled by us and not in the government or politicians.

Where I live they say we must declare it as an asset, Bitcoin for them is nothing in particular, just an asset like any other because it has a value and everything that has a value must be declared and taxed. I don't know if everywhere it works this way...

But the point is that Bitcoins aren't being tracked for banal reasons like that, so only criminals are calling more attention for them, people who use Bitcoin for illegal activities, legit users are secured. I have seen even countries which banned Bitcoin saying it's hard to track all its users, so sooner or later they will have to change the policy.

Some government try to legalize bitcoin because they want to track down bitcoin transaction's flow especially on corruptor case.
They can control in order to prevent something bad so it's reasonable for them to legalize bitcoin as soon as possible although some people may not agree !
They can actually legalize and adopt it but talking on just legalizing because for the sake of knowing or tracking down transactions then this thing is really impossible even though they would decide to legalize but they are just still like blind man since those transactions cant really be tracked or whose the one who are making such tx.This is why they don't really tend or plan to accept bitcoin in the very first place. How much more if we do talk about taxation. Anyone can evade but they can still able to get some tax on those services who do make use or engage with bitcoin or on any other crypto.
Do you think that bitcoin users can't track you? This is not so. Transactions are trail. There is your IP. What else do you need in order to find you. When you get to the Bank card transfer after the exchange of bitcoins is also easy to see. The anonymity of bitcoin is an illusion.
hero member
Activity: 2926
Merit: 722
DGbet.fun - Crypto Sportsbook
Tax imposed when it is legal but although bitcoin is not legal the transactions fees or charge serves us a tax in bitcoin when we withdraw it.There is no authority or legal regulations we should follow that they need a tax on bitcoin.It is controlled by us and not in the government or politicians.

Where I live they say we must declare it as an asset, Bitcoin for them is nothing in particular, just an asset like any other because it has a value and everything that has a value must be declared and taxed. I don't know if everywhere it works this way...

But the point is that Bitcoins aren't being tracked for banal reasons like that, so only criminals are calling more attention for them, people who use Bitcoin for illegal activities, legit users are secured. I have seen even countries which banned Bitcoin saying it's hard to track all its users, so sooner or later they will have to change the policy.

Some government try to legalize bitcoin because they want to track down bitcoin transaction's flow especially on corruptor case.
They can control in order to prevent something bad so it's reasonable for them to legalize bitcoin as soon as possible although some people may not agree !
They can actually legalize and adopt it but talking on just legalizing because for the sake of knowing or tracking down transactions then this thing is really impossible even though they would decide to legalize but they are just still like blind man since those transactions cant really be tracked or whose the one who are making such tx.This is why they don't really tend or plan to accept bitcoin in the very first place. How much more if we do talk about taxation. Anyone can evade but they can still able to get some tax on those services who do make use or engage with bitcoin or on any other crypto.
member
Activity: 94
Merit: 10
In my country bitcoin is still free without any government interference about taxation, so there is no tax for bitcoin. But i also hope there is no tax for bitcoin.
full member
Activity: 434
Merit: 104
For now every government of the other countries has not yet implement any law about applying tax for bitcoin. But if the government make a move to control every people who used bitcoin it may lead to corruption.
newbie
Activity: 3
Merit: 0
I think China and the US are trying as much as possible to enforce financial disclosure regulations.
In the US, it is a crime not to disclose financial transactions, and this way, bitcoins can be considered a property for disclosure.
hero member
Activity: 980
Merit: 509
For my country not legalized bitcoin yet. So no need to pay tax from bitcoin. But in my country, most of my friends use bitcoin for their investments.
They already get benefit and profit from bitcoin. Almost do investments 3 year ago and they excited with bitcoin.
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
As many said before me i thik that if you just keep your coins in bitcoin you are anonymus and can't be forced to pay taxes. Altho when you would want to transform in your countrys currency or buy something you should respect the law and pay taxes for the amount you spent.
legendary
Activity: 2478
Merit: 1360
Don't let others control your BTC -> self custody
Laws are laws, you aren't forced to, but you are supposed to obey them. Many people are choosing not to and I'm pretty sure each of us have broken some laws here and there.
Don't drink in public, don't smoke weed, don't drive above the limit, don't trespass on private property... There's a common saying that laws are made to be broken Wink
If you can hide your coins and think the possible gains are worth the risk the choice isn't hard. Personally I'm not forced to report my coins, I know that the authorities would appreciate if I did it, but there's basically nothing they can do to prove that I own any coins.
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