my big worry is if i do not report now, they may come at me 5-10 years from now with interested owed.
If Bitcoin is still worth anything 5-10 years from now and you own some now you'll likely be able to manage that risk by just moving outside their jurisdiction.
Unless the OP renounces citizenship (not a bad idea right now), moving does nothing except offer a potential 95K tax credit if you live 330 days (or something like that) outside the USA.
The only country on the planet that taxes its citizens regardless of where they live.
...the land of the free
yeah a shame the US is the world police at this point.
You sold bitcoins this year or last? My condolences. You should have already had all your tax questions answered before you sold them. Now you already did some financial transactions without thinking about how it was going to look on your taxes until after you did it? Generally not a good thing to do with large amounts of money.
I am not going to give you specific tax or legal advice.
Generally speaking, a bitcoin miner's plan, especially considering the current regulatory uncertainty, should include documentation of expenses and a talk with a lawyer who can tell you how to legally convert your coins into the currency of your choice if you are really afraid of (unlikely this year) potentially enforceable regulation coming in this hard on the heels of the guidance.
I havnt sold any of my coins luckily, i bought 7btc back when they were worth $5 each in July of last year. But i have been mining non stop since then, so i take it the appreciation from July till Jan 1st would be taxable as capital gains? And can i write off the electricity used for mining as an expense?
i found a great wiki page on tax compliance but it dosnt seem to be updated since the US Treasury made their statement last week.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Tax_complianceAnd what about claiming my mining as a "hobby"? Since i have no exchanged any BTC to USD?
EDIT: I saw another thread where someone had the idea of claiming earnings as "gambling" only if over $5000... Since Bitcoins are not considered a true currency by the US, couldnt i claim that i was gambling by using GPU power to harvest coins and holding on to them?
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1627264