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48-nation bloc to crack down on using crypto assets to avoid tax

theregister.com

11–20 of 116 posts

Re: 48-nation bloc to crack down on using crypto assets to avoid tax

#12
I’m not a crypto person, but I have always been curious - how does the tax situation actually work if you don’t want to commit tax evasion? I know that on US tax returns you need to tick a box if you’ve transacted in crypto, and you have to pay tax on the realized gains/losses. How do you actually go about doing that accounting practically given the volatility and the number of transactions? Are there special pieces of software that handle those calculations? Do they differ between jurisdictions (other countries particularly)?

I know the real cynical answer is that most people just don’t report correctly, but I’m curious how you’d do it if you wanted to be legit.

Re: 48-nation bloc to crack down on using crypto assets to avoid tax

#14

I’m not a crypto person, but I have always been curious - how does the tax situation actually work if you don’t want to commit tax evasion? I know that on US tax returns you need to tick a box if you’ve transacted in crypto, and you have to pay tax on the realized gains/losses. How do you actually go about doing that accounting practically given the volatility and the number of transactions? Are there special pieces…

You'd value the assets at the time of the transaction using reasonable and publicly known exchange rates to fiat. Same process as bartering in any asset.

Re: 48-nation bloc to crack down on using crypto assets to avoid tax

#15

The article has little info about what actually was agreed upon. All it says is these countries will share info. Blockchains are already public. So what will they be sharing?

Basically that due diligence is required on crypto purchases and sales: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/d97fd445-en/index.html?i...

Re: 48-nation bloc to crack down on using crypto assets to avoid tax

#16
post #2

> ... and a lousy store of value I expect this to be true eventually, but so far Bitcoin has been doing OK as a store of value. Unless people bought in the relatively short peaks, HODLers aren't losing crazy amount of money and one could reasonably anticipate that it'll reach $60k/bitcoin again in the near future. There seem to be people convinced that the crypto types are coming out a long way behind but I'm not rea…

"crypto types" isn't just bitcoin, and most crypto currencies, and most NFTs have crashed to basically zero. You are right that bitcoin, and a couple of others, are staying strong.

> most crypto currencies, and most NFTs have crashed to basically zero. That's just plain untrue.

Re: 48-nation bloc to crack down on using crypto assets to avoid tax

#18

I’m not a crypto person, but I have always been curious - how does the tax situation actually work if you don’t want to commit tax evasion? I know that on US tax returns you need to tick a box if you’ve transacted in crypto, and you have to pay tax on the realized gains/losses. How do you actually go about doing that accounting practically given the volatility and the number of transactions? Are there special pieces…

In Poland there is no checkbox on a tax forms to say "you've dealt with crypto", but every transaction over 10K EUR is reported to the gov, and when I was a UK tax resident with a Polish bank account my Polish bank asked for my UK tax info to send the details of any such transactions to HMRC in the UK. I suspect it's an EU wide thing.

I'm not sure why these 48 countries single out crypto assets like this. You can evade taxes by buying gold, heck, there were schemes that bought tons of steel, mobile phones, anything of value.

To me it all seems like just pandering to "crypto=bad" crowd.

Re: 48-nation bloc to crack down on using crypto assets to avoid tax

#19

I’m not a crypto person, but I have always been curious - how does the tax situation actually work if you don’t want to commit tax evasion? I know that on US tax returns you need to tick a box if you’ve transacted in crypto, and you have to pay tax on the realized gains/losses. How do you actually go about doing that accounting practically given the volatility and the number of transactions? Are there special pieces…

It's not difficult at all. This is 2023, we have spreadsheets, lol. You just generate a list of all transactions and losses/gains. Active traders have been doing this one way or another for a century now with stocks and derivatives.

If cryptocurrency was actually used for purchasing goods/services it would be more tricky.

Re: 48-nation bloc to crack down on using crypto assets to avoid tax

#20
post #2

> ... and a lousy store of value I expect this to be true eventually, but so far Bitcoin has been doing OK as a store of value. Unless people bought in the relatively short peaks, HODLers aren't losing crazy amount of money and one could reasonably anticipate that it'll reach $60k/bitcoin again in the near future. There seem to be people convinced that the crypto types are coming out a long way behind but I'm not rea…

> ...Unless people bought in the relatively short peaks...

That's a bit minimalistic, no? The "short peak" of $50-60k (around 50-100% more than the current value) lasted something like 6 months AFAIK? To be a store of value, you would hope those fluctuations would be nonexistant.

Store of value should be for everyone, not just the unlucky ones...

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