Now you would owe tax if your basis is zero on the tokens, or anything less than 500k. I don't believe you can defer this gain in this situation, although I really only do corporation taxes, so I may be mistaken. But to my knowledge you would have to pay taxes on the gain of the original tokens, then your basis in the btc would be 500k.
If I trade my tokens for Bitcoin ... how is it that I would owe tax? Neither of these are money ... it is like trading one piece of art for another: my Gauguin for your Matisse. And by making the trade we've established that they are of ~ equal value. A like-kind exchange with no fiat involved. I think Poloniex owes tax on trading fees, and has to comply with anti-money laundering requirements. As someone mentioned I don't think this is a tax issue until I ultimately convert to fiat ... which could be a very long time.
I'm looking at this reference - it says proceeds from crowdfunding are taxable - see #10 near bottom of article - but then in item #11 says cryptocurrencies are taxable when converted to fiat:
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/04/08/11-Surprising-Things-You-Have-to-Pay-Taxes-OnSo Ethereum, the DAO, and all the rest paid taxes on their proceeds?? I'm a bit skeptical ...
Meanwhile. I'm not going to worry about taxes until I convert to fiat, or until there is better clarity.
You didn't mention how you came about the tokens. But yes, you would still owe taxes on them. Consider this...
You are walking down the street, you find a $100 bill on the ground, you pick it up and put it in your pocket. You now owe taxes on that $100. Same thing if you were to find gold/silver/a private key with bitcoins on it/etc.
If you mined the coins/tokens, yes you still owe tax on them, but depending on how you have it set up, you may be able to take some deductions for cost of the machines, electricity, and other expenses. That is only if you have it set up as a business though.
Your example was the same as mine with trading silver for gold. You owe tax on the event. Your right that 50k of silver is of equal value as 50k of gold, but if you bought that 50k of silver for 30k, you owe 20k of gains in taxes because your base is 30k, but now you have a base in the gold of 50k. Does that make sense?
