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US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

btcmanager.com

111–120 of 187 posts

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#111
post #3

Bank secrecy is dead* To imagine that bitcoin could change that or not abide is foolishness. * for poor people anyway, with poor meaning < $10 mil which affords you lawyers and offshore shell companies

Not in Switzerland -- as long as you are neither US citizen nor US resident.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#112
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ish. it's not that different from status quo. 1. Government already knows all of your US bank accounts. 2. They ask you to declare foreign bank accounts. 3. Majority of countries have deals with US to inform them of US residents/citizens accounts, and many banks for this reason do not accept new accounts from us citizens. 4. US asks you to declare any monetary instrument as you enter country (above 10K) or so. So if…

Bitcoin is more analogous to cash. The government does not mandate people reveal how much cash they have in their possession.

Cash-only transactions, maybe. But don't forget, the transactions are tracable, so technically, if you somehow transfer money to a "monitored account" that has ties to your identity (like, transfering money to DMV for your driver's license), your identity is revealed.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#113
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or if he hasnt renounced his citizenship

Renouncing citizenship wouldn’t prevent you from owing uncollected or misfiled back taxes.

Good point. Educate me (since i am not sure about that part of taxes), would exercising your gains and converting them to fiat in a country which doesn't have capital gains taxes (singapore, i think is one?) generate backtaxes?

I am thinking: BTC=0 value when satoshi generated them. Now they are worth billions. There is capital gains, but assume he renounced his us citizenship before converting them to fiat. What would happen?

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#114
post #50

The text doesn't sound so much to me like it's criminalizing intentionally concealed ownership of cryptocurrency, as ownership of accounts at exchanges...say, by signing up for an exchange with a fake ID.

That’s irritating. I’ve signed up for a few exchanges with fictitious details, on the basis that their being hacked seems likely. Still declare to HMRC when necessary tho

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#115
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cryptocurrencies can be mixed. If you engage in very basic precautions, such as doing something easy like transferring your money to monero, and then back again, it is effectively impossible to track where your money came from. Once you get to the coffee shop stage, nobody knows where that money came from.

With today statistical analysis methods is trivial to track big flows through various block chains, even if some of them are totally hidden. And they only get better by the day, with your traces sitting there like a duck. And you don't need to be 100% certain, it's enough to get a pool of suspects which then you can analyze/surveil with other methods.

How about monero?

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#116
post #6

Good old Dianne Feinstein, always protecting me from the scary terrorists.

Not only did she pretend to be incredulous about NSA spying, she put forward the bill to excuse most of it after completely redirecting the conversation to "metadata." Now Ajit Pai made it a partisan issue she's having screaming about being pro net neutrality but a few years back she co-sponsored the PIPA bill! Worst of all she's considered to be basically impossible to replace. It would be very nice to see CA stop g…

I have high hopes for Alison Hartson.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#117
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't apply to crypto. Only have to report if the crypto is sold.

I guess the implication is that you have to report foreign assets specifically because it’s not easy for the IRS to obtain records from foreign financial institutions. Since it’s also not easy for them to obtain records from a decentralized crypto-currency then the same justification exists for adding these to a list of things you must report.

The law doesn't care whether the same justification exists. A bitcoin wallet in your house in US is not a foreign asset, since those bits (that representing private keys for bitcoin addresses) are physically in the US.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#118
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It is an asset. So you only disclose when you sell?

What does it mean to sell? People have already generated lots of taxable event when they started diversifying into other coins for example.

It is my understanding that trading one for another, (BTC to ETH, for example), is a taxable event thus has to be reported.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#119
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true. There are reporting requirements for certain foreign assets, including cash in overseas accounts.

Doesn't apply to crypto. Only have to report if the crypto is sold.

Please stop using crypto to mean cryptographic currency. Crypto has a well defined meaning.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#120
post #92
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t disclose assets to the IRS, only income. If you disclose your income and pay tax on it then convert it to BTC today you aren’t obliged to disclose it. In theory after you sell it you’d have a capital gain to disclose.

Not true. There are reporting requirements for certain foreign assets, including cash in overseas accounts.

operative word: "foreign". But your bitcoin wallet can exist entirely in US.
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