...I'm a lawyer specialising in electronic commerce).
Welcome to the forum Anduril.
How ironic, a lawyer who is
"afraid" of Bitcoin investing due to tax implications.
Think of it like making virtual money in Second Life: When you convert to USD, then you report the income. I do see your concern is about the legality of BTC itself.
1) If you convert from BTC > Paypal USD you are taking a huge risk the buyer will burn you.
2) If you use LR (for example), then your LR > USD transaction is taxable income, but how does the Gov ever know Bitcoins were involved?
3) If your Bitcoin investment rises in value (or at any time) you can use some to buy products and services.
IMO, #2 has tax implications, but you are not really exposed to being caught
doing anything illegal.#3 is a
barter issue(?) and you have tax liability if you are following the letter of the law, but talking about jail seems pretty extreme, IMO.
Too much typing...
Maybe I should have stopped here:
Think of it like making virtual money in Second Life: When you convert to USD, then you report the income.How is the Gov going to know BTC was involved? + they are not really even illegal (yet?)
Considering how dangerous everything is, nothing is really very frightening. ~Gertrude Stein