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IRS reminds taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions

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101–110 of 278 posts

Re: IRS reminds taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions

#101
post #87
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't he convert to fiat and then used that fiat to buy alt-coins.

I assume not? That's not very common, you can't even buy most alt-coins with fiat. It's usually bitcoin for alt-coin.

Still doesn't change the fact that you have to pay tax on gains when you sell an asset. Doesn't matter if you sold it for USD or bartered it for alt-coins, washing machines, or shiny rocks.

Re: IRS reminds taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions

#102
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still need the fiat exchange value at the time of buying/selling the cryptocurrencies (unless you only assume "token for token" trades), which is not stored on the blockchain.

Aren’t those data trivial to procure for the common cryptocurrencies? For uncommon ones, just ask the user to find the price on dates X, Y and Z.

A given day could have multiple instances of open/close price n for any number of trading intervals though couldn't it?

Re: IRS reminds taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions

#104
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“biggest killer of small business in the US.” Owners who think they’re being clever, when they’re just violating the law?

One of my neighbors was talking like this. Turned out he was stealing employee payroll taxes and sales taxes to get current with his trade creditors.

This immediate suspicion when speaking out is why I removed the comment. I am not stealing anything and I don't have any employees.

Re: IRS reminds taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions

#105
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if one want to trade crypto currencies, is that you have to record every transaction This is true for all capital assets. With cryptocurrencies, the data are all public. There may be room for a service which, given a set of wallets, produces a sample tax transcript.

You still need the fiat exchange value at the time of buying/selling the cryptocurrencies (unless you only assume "token for token" trades), which is not stored on the blockchain.

Fwiw IRS has a table for the FX exchange rate you can use for tax purposes for a given year (maybe date too?). We used this data for international subsidiary tax compliance for US tax reporting. I wonder if the IRS will actually able to provide such benchmark data for at least the common coins.

Re: IRS reminds taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions

#106
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. If you mine cryptos or receive them as income they’re reported as income. You also have to report gains if you spend them or trade them for another crypto currency.

This is bad for everyone. Holy crap do we need reform.

Reform on what? You sell an asset you pay the tax on your gains. This construct has existed forever. The fact that you didn't sell the asset for fiat and instead bartered it for something else is immaterial in the eyes of almost any tax code in the world.

The only reform I see needed is that exchanges could help facilitate reporting these transactions.

Re: IRS reminds taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions

#107
post #33

If you are walking down the beach and find a $20 bill on the ground, you are required to report it as income. The only way that I know of that you can legally enrich yourself without paying taxes is via a direct gift and that’s because the giver pays tax instead of you.

Worth mentioning that there exists a $5MM lifetime max that any individual can gift before paying taxes. A common misconception is that you have to pay tax on every gift you make, but as long as you’re under that $5MM all you have to do is report it.

That doubled with the tax reform. It's roughly 10.x million per person now.

Re: IRS reminds taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions

#108
post #62

The problem, if one want to trade crypto currencies, is that you have to record every transaction. Then one has to figure out if the coins you have traded have been held for over a year and thus treated at the long term capital gains tax rate as opposed to the short term rate. Then, I believe with the new tax bill, one has to, going forward, sell the oldest coins first (if they are going to be treated like stocks). T…

Fyi FIFO sales did not pass.

Re: IRS reminds taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions

#109
post #28
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Treat it as if you sold the crypto for USD (and pay capital gains). So if you bought a crypto for $10, the price appreciated to $110, and then you bough something worth $110, then you have to pay taxes on $100 of income. It’s the same place you repot capital gains for equity (I don’t remember the form number)

What if I bought 1BTC at $10, then I bought 1BTC at $200, then I bought something with 1BTC when BTC dropped to $100/1BTC? Which BTC was used for the purchase- the one I bought at $10 or the one at $200? It sort of kills the use of cryptocurrency as "currency" in the US. Imagine if in the end of the year we had to report every dollar transaction (e.g. buying a coffee and a bagel), trace how you earned that dollar and…

> It sort of kills the use of cryptocurrency as "currency" in the US.

Because nobody was using cryptocurrency as a currency in the first place--it is far to volatile to behave as a functioning currency. It is all being used for speculation.

Re: IRS reminds taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions

#110
post #12

"No", respond taxpayers. How do they intend to record this?

> "No", respond taxpayers. "K, enjoy prison. And the fines. And interest." > How do they intend to record this? Coinbase shares data with the IRS. I imagine Kraken will also, as they are US-based. Maybe you've used a foreign exchange that isn't obliged to share this data with the USG, though if you've received large fiat sums to your bank account you may have raised some AML flags already...

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