I've spent another few hours crunching numbers to try to work out some of the current economics of bitcoin mining as a whole. I've been interested in how much money has been generated by mining and how much has to be spent on mining hardware. I also took a guess at when the next fixed block reward will halve next time and what the current peak hashing rate might look like (assuming the best current 28 nm ASICs).
If anyone is interested then you can find the write-up at: http://hashingit.com/11-the-rewards-for-a-bitcoin-miner
If anyone is interested then you can find the write-up at: http://hashingit.com/11-the-rewards-for-a-bitcoin-miner
It looks like you are completely omitting the added tax complexities and cost associated with US based mining, thus for me the write-up is incomplete and doesn't seem relevant for the times. Just being honest, my opinion.
I guess the interesting question is just what percentage of the mining is taking place in the US? Up to now there hasn't really been a huge tax complication and it will be interesting to see what effect that has. It's difficult to estimate the impact given a lack of any historical data.
For anyone mining as a commercial enterprise then I would expect that if any income is being reinvested in mining equipment then the tax liabilities will be marginal - it's certainly there for any individuals though.
Tax liabilities are one thing, but the compliance and hiring of CPAs is another. I mean, there are plenty of collateral costs that come along with increased compliance. I went legit, taxes due weren't crazy but definitely had to pay my CPA a few bucks and put several hours into creating records for him. The larger the operation the larger the costs.