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Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

theguardian.com

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Re: Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

#101

Post by ps4fanboy »

robzyb wrote: post #78
Innercode wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a consultant in the R&D Tax space. The press release relates to an advanced finding, which is an advanced approval of R&D activities. It does not however guarantee approval for the amount of expenditure they would be claiming. A tax refund of that size would naturally attract the attention of the Australian Tax Office(ATO). The press release is also dated before they could submit their tax return to obtain a 14/1…

Fellow Australian here (albeit currently living in Tokyo). The "We create tax refunds" part of your homepage says that a company can get a tax refund even if there is no sales. Does this mean that if I establish a company tomorrow, invest $100k of capital, and spent $100k of capital on R&D, then the ATO will give my company $45k?

Yes, you have to spend the money though so youll still be down 55K, it doesnt count to things like capital purchases.

Re: Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

#102

Post by lmm »

nthitz wrote: post #21
Mtinie wrote: post #12

From the article: > Guardian Australia understands the raids are not related to the claims that Wright may have been involved in the creation of bitcoin, but are related to an Australian Tax Office investigation. So the story is that the Australian Tax Office just happened to be running an investigation looking into some facet of Craig Wright's finances. An investigation that apparently revealed some sort of abnormal…

gwern is responding on this /r/bitcoin thread https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3vzgnd/bitcoins_cr...

Does that mean we now know that gwern isn't Wright?

Re: Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

#103

Post by cant_kant »

Mtinie wrote: post #12

From the article: > Guardian Australia understands the raids are not related to the claims that Wright may have been involved in the creation of bitcoin, but are related to an Australian Tax Office investigation. So the story is that the Australian Tax Office just happened to be running an investigation looking into some facet of Craig Wright's finances. An investigation that apparently revealed some sort of abnormal…

There has been a long standing dispute between him and the Tax Office about whether his Bitcoins should be treated as assets ( higher tax rate ) or as currency. His lawyers have lobbied senior Cabinet Ministers in connection with this.

I understand that he was planning to leave the country in January. Movers had been to his rented home in Gordon, Sydney and have removed much of his furniture.

I assume that the Tax Office did not want their target to flee with all the evidence that they wanted to lay their hands on.

Re: Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

#104

Post by Innercode »

robzyb wrote: post #78
Innercode wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a consultant in the R&D Tax space. The press release relates to an advanced finding, which is an advanced approval of R&D activities. It does not however guarantee approval for the amount of expenditure they would be claiming. A tax refund of that size would naturally attract the attention of the Australian Tax Office(ATO). The press release is also dated before they could submit their tax return to obtain a 14/1…

Fellow Australian here (albeit currently living in Tokyo). The "We create tax refunds" part of your homepage says that a company can get a tax refund even if there is no sales. Does this mean that if I establish a company tomorrow, invest $100k of capital, and spent $100k of capital on R&D, then the ATO will give my company $45k?

The R&D Tax Incentive was designed to give a cash benefit for startups who have little tax to pay. So your example is correct for a pre revenue entity, assuming no outstanding tax liabilities. Its an entitlement scheme, so as long as your doing R&D, have a company and spending your money through the company, you will get the benefit of the scheme.

It is one area that Australia has a significant advantage over the US for startups.

Re: Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

#105

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

Mtinie wrote: post #12

From the article: > Guardian Australia understands the raids are not related to the claims that Wright may have been involved in the creation of bitcoin, but are related to an Australian Tax Office investigation. So the story is that the Australian Tax Office just happened to be running an investigation looking into some facet of Craig Wright's finances. An investigation that apparently revealed some sort of abnormal…

Bitcoin is to be taxed as an asset not a currency in Australia.

The original gizmodo[0] piece has more on this:

The hacker-tipster also included multiple PDF files that contain what appear to be a transcript of a meeting about Bitcoin regulation between Wright, his attorney, and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), as well as the minutes of a subsequent meeting of the ATO and Wright’s attorney. Wright appears to have been trying to persuade the Australian government to treat his Bitcoin holdings as currency, as opposed to an asset subject to greater taxation. Without this regulatory move, his business interests would be scuttled. During an interlude in one such meeting, Wright makes an oddly casual admission of his identity as Satoshi (highlighting added):

A request to confirm the authenticity of the document sent to Auscript, the transcription service whose logo appears at the top of the file, was denied on the basis of company policy. A request sent to the ATO was also denied on the basis of state confidentiality.

[0] http://gizmodo.com/this-australian-says-he-and-his-dead-frie...

I speculate this tax ruling and the ongoing investigation was also the reason why he wanted to migrate to the UK soon. The article has probably given the ATO reason to believe that he is under flight-risk.

Re: Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

#106

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #105
Mtinie wrote: post #12

From the article: > Guardian Australia understands the raids are not related to the claims that Wright may have been involved in the creation of bitcoin, but are related to an Australian Tax Office investigation. So the story is that the Australian Tax Office just happened to be running an investigation looking into some facet of Craig Wright's finances. An investigation that apparently revealed some sort of abnormal…

Bitcoin is to be taxed as an asset not a currency in Australia. The original gizmodo[0] piece has more on this: The hacker-tipster also included multiple PDF files that contain what appear to be a transcript of a meeting about Bitcoin regulation between Wright, his attorney, and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), as well as the minutes of a subsequent meeting of the ATO and Wright’s attorney. Wright appears to hav…

ignore me. same conclusions below it seems

Re: Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

#107

Post by Angostura »

aianus wrote: post #26
bmelton wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the possible reason for raiding him is to catch up on tax obligations from having accrued so much undeclared wealth. I don't know if there are other crimes for which they intend to charge him, but that's the first one that pops to mind. Also, they've obviously had meetings in advance of "what do we do if we determine the identity of Satoshi", because this raid was FAST.

You don't have to pay taxes on capital gains until you sell the asset. Satoshi hasn't sold his hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin, they're just sitting there on the blockchain where they were mined.

Unless Australian tax law considers Bitcoin a currency.

Re: Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

#108

Post by PhasmaFelis »

theGimp wrote: post #90

Once again, you have a journalist ruining a person's life by claiming they created BitCoin. Wired better be able to back it up.

It's just as shitty whether it's true or false. Either way, they're deliberately exposing someone to unwanted public attention to sell magazines and ad impressions.

Re: Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

#109

Post by Innercode »

flashman wrote: post #93
Innercode wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a consultant in the R&D Tax space. The press release relates to an advanced finding, which is an advanced approval of R&D activities. It does not however guarantee approval for the amount of expenditure they would be claiming. A tax refund of that size would naturally attract the attention of the Australian Tax Office(ATO). The press release is also dated before they could submit their tax return to obtain a 14/1…

Andrew or David? We've done some work with you before (Vector 5).

Still working for Vector 5!

Cheers, Andrew

Re: Reported Bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police

#110

Post by yc1010 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #97
Mtinie wrote: post #12

From the article: > Guardian Australia understands the raids are not related to the claims that Wright may have been involved in the creation of bitcoin, but are related to an Australian Tax Office investigation. So the story is that the Australian Tax Office just happened to be running an investigation looking into some facet of Craig Wright's finances. An investigation that apparently revealed some sort of abnormal…

If I had an ongoing investigation into someone suspected of tax evasion and suddenly the internet at large revealed his identity, I'd be sure to raid asap - Wright was probably not aware that the tax office was investigating him, but I'm sure that if he is Satoshi and sits on a million BTC, and his identity is revealed, I'd try and GTFO. Which wouldn't be in the tax office's interest. Not sure if the above makes sens…

I am thinking here is what happened

The guy seeing an opportunity and possibly having some early coins declared himself to tax office as Satoshi, but maybe claimed he lost keys to majority of coins. He then proceeded to have one of his companies claim tax back for R&D of bitcoin. The whole thing probably backfired then.

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