Bitcoin Forum

The Biden administration has proposed international cooperation to clamp down on crypto tax evasion by sharing data globally.

The Biden administration is making an effort to clamp down on crypto tax evasion by asking for the collection of data on foreign cryptocurrency investors active in the U.S. The United States Treasury Department released a series of revenue proposals late last month when the suggestion was made. The effort is a bid to increase international cooperation on tax evasion related to crypto.

The guideline would require cryptocurrency brokers like exchanges and hosted wallet providers to provide information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This information would be related to foreign individuals that indirectly hold accounts with said entities.

Many foreign individuals currently use platforms based in the U.S. to make their trades. Given that crypto tax laws are still very much in the early stages, there are likely many earnings going unreported. The U.S. would hand information on these purchases to foreign governments.

In return, it would receive information on U.S. citizens who could be dealing in cryptocurrencies abroad. Many Americans also use foreign exchanges and wallet providers to handle their crypto investments.

The IRS has previously made efforts to ensure tax compliance within the United States. But the new suggestion marks a significant step forward in terms of ensuring compliance. It will be interesting to see how other governments take to this idea, as they too are concerned about taxation.

Biden administration keen on crypto regulation
The Biden administration is making a concerted effort to plug any loopholes in the crypto market. Many new statements and potential regulatory changes have been suggested in the past few months. These include those related to taxation, KYC/AML, and investor protection.

Several new appointees in key positions have also made their opinions on the crypto market known. While they are not particularly welcoming of cryptocurrencies, they do acknowledge that the technology has benefits. The key focus at the moment appears to be investor protection.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, and OCC Acting Comptroller Michael J. Hsu have all made remarks to that end. The sudden uptick in cryptocurrency discussion, and the remarks made by officials, are a clear sign that 2021 will likely be a year of regulatory focus on cryptocurrencies.

The world at large is also very interested in seeing how the U.S. tackles regulation, which could set an example for other countries. South Korea, China, and the U.K. are all also doubling down on regulation, with similar reasons to that of the United States.

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-goes-crypto-tax-evaders-095735812.html

Can anyone imagine a scenario where nations of the world sacrifice state sovereignty to pander to this proposal of global tax initiatives. Would every nation in the world willingly abandon their right to government themselves and bow down before the united states, Joe Biden, china or any central authority figure?

Does anyone support this as a first step towards a one world government someday becoming a reality?

I think we saw the blueprint for how this will unfold in the history of net neutrality. Many years ago John McCain proposed a bill known as the internet freedom act, which would have killed net neutrality. That bill failed. And another attempt to kill net neutrality was made. And another. Adjustments were made. Until finally they succeeded in killing net neutrality. I think these attempts at establishing global tax initiatives and perhaps a global one world government will be the same.

Shows how desperate the US government to have money because each government will definitely ask what right do they have to get these data from them?

If the country would not comply with this Global Data Sharing Initiative and they rage this up to terrorism-related issues so they could bypass and access these data, it's another story but I really think they would do that.

This is the kind of thing we can really expect under a Democrat administration: there will be more and more regulations not really just to protect investors but mainly to extract as much tax and revenues as possible.

Can anyone imagine a scenario where nations of the world sacrifice state sovereignty to pander to this proposal of global tax initiatives. Would every nation in the world willingly abandon their right to government themselves and bow down before the united states, Joe Biden, china or any central authority figure?

...

Does anyone support this as a first step towards a one world government someday becoming a reality?

Why do I have the feeling that this is old news?
The idea of a global tax won't work,because many countries won't agree to raise their taxes.

Can anyone imagine a scenario where nations of the world sacrifice state sovereignty to pander to this proposal of global tax initiatives. Would every nation in the world willingly abandon their right to government themselves and bow down before the united states, Joe Biden, china or any central authority figure?

I think these attempts at establishing global tax initiatives and perhaps a global one world government will be the same.

~ why exactly do we owe taxes on crypto-earnings to the government??

I'd really like to see some viewpoints on this. Bitcoin and crypto is something that the government has played zero role in. It is those of us working behind our screens that have given value to these currencies. Now that they appreciate and people get benefited from this economy that they have created without any govt help, why does the government deserve our taxes??

This is a good question. From where I am from, there is a law that income (whatever form) derived in and outside of the country are subject to tax unless it's specifically stated that it's exempt. I'd like to think that the infrastructures built by the State agencies (or private companies they partnered) that helped us set up our own accounts/equipment/machines to trade/mine crypto as reasons for this.

Can anyone imagine a scenario where nations of the world sacrifice state sovereignty to pander to this proposal of global tax initiatives. Would every nation in the world willingly abandon their right to government themselves and bow down before the united states, Joe Biden, china or any central authority figure?

Does anyone support this as a first step towards a one world government someday becoming a reality?

I think we saw the blueprint for how this will unfold in the history of net neutrality. Many years ago John McCain proposed a bill known as the internet freedom act, which would have killed net neutrality. That bill failed. And another attempt to kill net neutrality was made. And another. Adjustments were made. Until finally they succeeded in killing net neutrality. I think these attempts at establishing global tax initiatives and perhaps a global one world government will be the same.

This first proposal made by Joe Biden will probably fail. They will make adjustments and try again.

They can do it because they are a powerful country, even the small countries that are their allies might be strict in implementing crypto taxes. I'm living in a poor country where crypto taxes are not yet strictly implemented, now, I'm afraid that soon the regulators will be strict and I have to pay taxes up to the single centavo I earned online. I'm not complaining as I know this time will come, but I'm just hoping we can delay the inevitable.

Can anyone imagine a scenario where nations of the world sacrifice state sovereignty to pander to this proposal of global tax initiatives. Would every nation in the world willingly abandon their right to government themselves and bow down before the united states, Joe Biden, china or any central authority figure?

Does anyone support this as a first step towards a one world government someday becoming a reality?

I think we saw the blueprint for how this will unfold in the history of net neutrality. Many years ago John McCain proposed a bill known as the internet freedom act, which would have killed net neutrality. That bill failed. And another attempt to kill net neutrality was made. And another. Adjustments were made. Until finally they succeeded in killing net neutrality. I think these attempts at establishing global tax initiatives and perhaps a global one world government will be the same.

This first proposal made by Joe Biden will probably fail. They will make adjustments and try again.

This is a good question. From where I am from, there is a law that income (whatever form) derived in and outside of the country are subject to tax unless it's specifically stated that it's exempt. I'd like to think that the infrastructures built by the State agencies (or private companies they partnered) that helped us set up our own accounts/equipment/machines to trade/mine crypto as reasons for this.

--snip-- It's part of the implicit social contract- to have a stable and peaceful society you need a government and first responders and a healthcare system and a judicial system, etc., and the citizens have to pay for that.

Regulation is much needed. But when these regulations go as far to sacrifice the privacy of the individuals involved we have to ask ourselves: "is the government doing what they are supposed to do ?" Yes they are supposed to hold such people accountable but at the same time they are also supposed to make such laws that are not only good for the government but also the people involved in the crypto world too. The taxes are discriminatory.
It should be taken into account and a reasonable amount should be implemented to the public otherwise they will for sure do such things.
What Biden is thinking of doing would not be implemented for sure. The government is already gaining huge taxes and sums from these things, why are they trying to make the crypto community hate them ? Make reasonable taxes then maybe those people would not hide.

I foresee a future wherein there will be a tight sharing of information regarding tax evasion and whatnot brought about by cryptocurrencies. It's becoming the next big thing, and it would be a waste if governments cannot tax it out and add the proceeds to their vaults. Biden's move is somehow aggressive and kinda telling of how would he be running the show in regards to tax evasion cases for the next years of his term. I do not see it as something extremely wrong as they have been doing this for years now even in normal tax evasion cases, but perhaps people are just taken aback with Joe's actions as privacy is crypto's strong suit, and most of us here feel that they are somewhat crossing the line on broad daylight.

And the next thing is that people will begin to use cryptocurrencies directly to buy stuff and avoid paying any taxes because of it, then governments will begin to fine tune their chain analysis techniques and people will use techniques to avoid them, this is nothing but an arms race and the more the government tries to squeeze their citizens to maintain an economic model that it does not work the more the citizens of those countries will resist peacefully.

I can tell you that zero rich person got punished for it, the only consequence for this was the journalist who uncovered this was murdered for it, nothing else happened to the elite. So, I can with clear mind say that rich will still steal your money and poor are already afraid of the nation and IRS so they are already paying the heavy pay for the wealthy not paying.

If you have disposed of coins, make sure you declare it properly.

There seems to be a range of initiatives right now in both the Treasury and the government that is addressing tax policy. The 15% universal minimum tax rate for corporations seem to be released perfectly in line with the crackdown in crypto activity.

Definitely not a coincidence I'd say, and the internal revenue services across the world will likely be looking to cash in with the crypto boom. Be smart about taxes though - if you just need money for short term purchases, consider taking a loan and keeping your BTC positions open so that CGT doesn't incur.

It's a fact governments are desperate for more income and crypto universe looks a pretty fertile spot to milk more money to the public vaults

Covid hit it hard for most country and business isnt going back to normal until probably atleast 80% of the world population is vaccinated. So in order to generate money, one of the easiest way to do it is to increase taxes and its no longer a secret that most people have been trying to avoid tax by storing their money in crypto

With all those stimulus from Biden, its expected that this is going to happen. You cant keep on printing money out of thin air forever

I think we saw the blueprint for how this will unfold in the history of net neutrality. Many years ago John McCain proposed a bill known as the internet freedom act, which would have killed net neutrality. That bill failed. And another attempt to kill net neutrality was made. And another. Adjustments were made. Until finally they succeeded in killing net neutrality. I think these attempts at establishing global tax initiatives and perhaps a global one world government will be the same.

This first proposal made by Joe Biden will probably fail. They will make adjustments and try again.

~
Now, If you look at a huge subset of the crypto-earnings, the value creation has no role played by the state. It is only because people the world over are trading and investing and giving value to random things from memes, NFTs to utility tokens. The way I see it, as global citizens, people have created an economy and have subsequently benefited from it. Some more than others due to downright scams, rugs, zero-regulation, 100X returns, better trades and so on.

When the state has not contributed to any of those returns, they shouldn't be taxable. In case of people using electricity for mining or on procurement of hardware, don't they already pay taxes when they buy these things? Bitcoin is the final good produced, so you cannot tax the final good as well as the equipment.

It is a complex question. I can see how one can be convinced that taxes are owed because of some round-about way of state enabling internet, providing stability and it all ultimately falling under the service category of Software development. Yet, when the state refuses to acknowledge that this "magic internet money" holds any value, then how does it expect taxes on it in the same way as other capital gains? Their is substantive argument on the "No taxes owed" side too.

~ There are activities exempt under the category of "not falling under jurisdiction". Those too are additional reasons that why cryptocurrencies (a common international good) should be exempt from taxation, or be taxed very little.

According to the IRS, every cryptocurrency transaction that you make needs to be reported in the income tax return. It doesn't matter whether you are transmitting $0.10 or $1,000 worth of coins. You need to enter the details everytime you purchase something with crypto. So at least within the US, you can't escape the tax liability when you purchase anything with BTC. Now the catch here is that if you do such purchases hundreds of times in a year, it gets quite tedious to enter the details. So a better option would be to use a platform such as PayPal, which will convert your coins to USD, before you make the purchase.