I think it would be harder to prove the value was zero than to prove it was something greater than zero. It can't default to zero. Zero is a number that must be supported as well. There is always someone doing OTC trades or an exchange somewhere doing futures.

If it turns out the coin can't be sold or transferred when you get around to it, or if you transfer to someone else for a few pennies, that could be a loss to offset the gain as long as you can justify the value. If you give them to someone though, that could be considered a gift and you couldn't claim a loss.

You're right. They specifically address if the fork coins are on an exchange, then it is taxable when the exchange distributes them. The problem is only if you hold the keys to the forked coins.

This is from their FAQ:

"When you receive cryptocurrency from an airdrop following a hard fork, you will have ordinary income equal to the fair market value of the new cryptocurrency when it is received, which is when the transaction is recorded on the distributed ledger, provided you have dominion and control over the cryptocurrency so that you can transfer, sell, exchange, or otherwise dispose of the cryptocurrency."

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/frequently-asked-questions-on-virtual-currency-transactions

I guess you would have to have a good justification for showing what the fair market value was even if it wasn't on an exchange such as any trading activity you could find on this board or elsewhere.

It is true. This only applies to people subject to US taxation (citizens and residents) and it doesn't matter where they dump the coins.

Yes, you owe the tax whether you sell or not. It is the same for U.S. stocks when a company goes public, original employees of the company are often given stock in the public company and they owe tax on the value of the stock on the day the company goes public whether they sell or not. This normally means they have to sell some of the stock to pay the taxes due.

The good news is that losses offset gains so if a coin is worth $100 the day it was created but you sell at $1, you can claim a loss of $99 per coin when you sell as long as you claimed the gain when the coin was created as well.

Next time you vote, vote for someone who understands bitcoin or at least someone who wants to reform the IRS.

Sure they can and they will. It doesn't matter if you sell them. When you sell them, that's a separate taxable event which would probably be a loss if the value dropped since the coin was created.

If you had access to those coins and were aware of those coins, that is 100% taxable based on the value when they were created or when you had access to them, whether you accessed them or not.

In an audit, it would be hard to argue you didn't know about it or didn't have access to the coins, if they can show you as a prominent member of the bitcoin community and you had the expertise to access the coins.

Selling them today or paying the IRS has nothing to do with the gain realized when the coins were created. If you do sell them at a later date, that is another taxable event.

That isn't what it says at all.

They don't understand the difference between a fork and an airdrop so of course they screwed it up by combining them.

In either case, they treat forks like airdrops and they are clear that if it's technically possible to exercise control over the fork coins, then they are taxable on the date of creation at the market price regardless of whether you access them or not. The selling of the coins is a separate taxable event.

So, basically, 95% of the Bitcoin market is fake volume and/or unregulated and therefore it is not possible to monitor the market for manipulation. Also, that 95% can't be separated from the real 5% in a reliable way that prevents the fake/unregulated/manipulated exchanges from affecting the price of the real exchanges and therefore, the ETF is denied.  

Based on that, i don't see how it will ever be approved.

$10455

Wow, pretty offensive and obtuse and coming from a liberal no less. Chinese does not equal Asian. Take a trip to Japan or at least do some research before spewing this garbage.

Not really, these idiot traders like to paint the chart for fun. It's not organic, it's manipulated up and down.

What does the 2017 vs 2019 one look like now?

$28,842

*It will be 3x our recent low of 9614.

RIP Binance, it was good while it lasted.

Just saw this terrible quotes commercial on TV that mentioned cryptocurrencies.

https://youtu.be/aAlC0fwWM8Y

Isn't Bitfinex still closed to U.S. residents? If this is driven by money from the U.S., it would make sense that Bitfinex was lagging.

I don't know about party affiliations but it seems to me that every citizen of a country should be given the exact same benefit of any social program. Managing any kind of rules requires an administrative burden. For each edge case or unique circumstance, there are 1000 administrative types in an office somewhere processing paperwork/requests/waivers. Make it universal or don't do it.

If we are giving welfare to one person, then we give it to every registered citizen. If that means everyone gets 500 a month, indexed for inflation, then that's what it means. Most of that monthly benefit would get pumped back into the economy and since fiat value is not based on anything really, the cost of the system could be calculated into the inflation of the USD and paid for by the FED rather than the US Government. The fed is going to stimulate the economy anyway, why not do it at the citizen level rather than the bank level? Call it the base cost of a having a population of citizens. Like oil revenues for Alaska residents. I mean, the country technically belongs to its citizens anyway, right?

A billionaire won't give a shit about that 500 a month and any soul who wants a better life for themselves is not going to settle for that either. The mentally ill will find someone to help them for that 500 and the people who refuse to work will have enough to deter them from committing petty crime for food (I mean they are too lazy to work and stealing takes work). People who are here illegally will not get it, so every citizen will have an immediate advantage over illegals.

Looks like CSW is pissed and dumping everything in a fit of rage

Nothing has to scale. One Bitcoin is going to be worth more than most people make in a lifetime. It will be transacted between governments, multinational companies and banks. Even the lighting network will be for the big boys. Nobody pays for coffee with gold. Visa works just fine for buying coffee, PayPal works great for other things. Move on to your shitcoin of choice for payments. Bitcoin will be fine without you.

Scary if true. I've thought about this quite a bit since reading "The Bitcoin Standard".

The countries who are first to adopt Bitcoin as their reserve currency or at least partially back their currencies with BTC are likely to be the most wealthy countries in 10-20 years. It could really shift the balance of power without a shot being fired.