Good news everyone.

The recent MtGox hack includes their trade history. I've briefly been through it and found my trades.

I'm intending to build up a database of the whole history and will make it available on https://bitcointaxes.info. You can just enter your user Id (from your verification or any deposit email) and it'll give you your trade history.

I'm hoping it's all there, so I'm still verifying this is the case.

edit: only goes up to 30th Nov 2013 but might help some people

Yes, the cost basis is the cost of buying, (price * volume) + fees.

Proceeds are, (price * volume) - fees.

Gain is their difference.

Agree, if you started in 2013 and paid one currency, bought Bitcoin, sold them all, got your USD back.

But if you have some Bitcoin left, you need to be calculating their cost basis for next year. If you sold any then bought them back at all, traded alt-coins,  it will have changed.

All our fiat conversions are the daily average taken from oanda.com. The date is the date that the conversion happened, i.e. the sale date for a sell and the buy date for a buy.

That should be right. If you open up the file in excel as a comma-separated file it should split each field out. If I'm not understanding can you send me a screen shot of what you are seeing to our support email address.


This is how it works. Please make sure you are setting EUR in your Account page and not just on the Trade page. The latter is legacy now as it just shows the page converted, but if you click Account over on the right you can set the "Default Currency" as Euros and click the Update button. When you go back, go into Calculate Gains and hit Recalculate. You should then see everything in Euros.

Again, if these are working, please use the Support button and contact me directly.

Thanks!


Hmm. Can you log a support ticket using the Support button on the site so I can look into it. It sounds like it isn't correctly putting a newline in there. If you can contact us, I can diagnose and fix it for everyone.


This works too.


It is initially US based, but I am working on other countries that have different tax years. I don't know where you are, for instance, in the UK the tax year starts on 6-April. If your tax years starts 1st Jan, you should just be able to go to your Account page and change your main currency to Euro and everything will get converted.

For the US, it is always your responsibility to keep and maintain records. You can't blame a 3rd party. Unfortunately, failure to report accurately could land you a civil penalty for negligence or fraud.

If you still don't have access when you need to file, you should consult a tax attorney to work out the best way to proceed.

Hopefully MtGox will provide some kind of access this year.

I imagined few people made a loss in 2013.

But if the prices stay about the same this year then I think you'll see some filed in 2014. And If MtGox don't repay anything back, there will be a lot more.

But I don't see it as an issue. If you pay taxes on gains you can claim losses. It's not like you're getting any back, just not having to pay as much.

Filing losses is not a red flag for audits.

It depends.

If you file as a business or even if you file as self-employed, then your example would be zero. $400 income less $400 expenses.

The IRS won't let a regular person deduct hobby expenses in the same way, but you can deduct hobby expense upto the amount of income your hobby makes (i.e. you can't make a loss). However, instead they become part of your normal deductions (Schedule A) rather than "business" (Schedule C) deductions. So to do this you have to itemize and file all your deductions including your direct hobby expenses. But this only works (and makes sense) if your itemized deductions are more than the normal standard deduction.

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p529/ar02.html

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Business-or-Hobby%3F-Answer-Has-Implications-for-Deductions

The IRS is not hobby friendly. Look to see if you could classify it as a business.

This varies by country.

For instance, in the US you are due to pay CGT on a tax-event, which can be selling into fiat, trading into alt-coins or spending.

This is also true in the UK if your original intention was as an investment. It's a new and grey area, but you won't get a free CG ride for long.

OP: You will need to work out each person's coins and the coin's cost basis, and then you can calculate the gains when they are spent or sold. Until then, depending on your country, you don't need to do anything.

Unfortunately the answer is no, as the date of the official bankruptcy would be used. But we also don't know how if/how they intend to restructure or repay. So even for 2014 it's unclear as you don't know how much you are getting back. If none or less, you'll likely claim it as a casualty loss in 2014.

Right. Once the bankruptcy has been finalized and we know if any Bitcoins are going to be credited, you can write them off as loss for that amount or zero, on that date. obviously in your 2014 taxes (assuming it gets sorted this year).

Nothing changes for filing in 2013, except for anyone who didn't download their trading history from MtGox.

In that case you won't be able to calculate your sales and cost basis. The IRS's stance is it is your responsibility to keep records. So given the ongoing investigations the US is more likely to obtain access to the MtGox customer accounts, in which case you will need to speak to a tax specialist to decided how to report those 2013 trades.

I'm obviously biased, but the last time I checked their site, the main issues is it doesn't account for fees in the costs basis or proceeds. So you will be paying too much tax.

Plus it fails on importing non-USD files (e.g. MtGox). It can't do any alt-coins and is limited on the exchanges it supports. It also doesn't show the cost basis of your remaining coins, which would be absolutely needed for next year.

You will probably be fine if you are making a reasonable attempt to calculate and pay taxes. It would only matter if you get audited, and in that case it is hard to imagine that you could be penalised for not following rules that didn't exist. At the very worst you would have to retroactively pay extra from previous years.

Most accountants I've seen are suggesting filing as general assets, because it is the general catch all for something that isn't anything else. So you would pay taxes on any capital gains. However, some are going to file as currency, so they can be conservative in taxes owed to ensure you aren't underpaying.

For capital gains, you would still need to calculate the cost basis for each coin when you sell, and I created a website where you can upload all your trade data and we work it all out.

https://bitcointaxes.info

We combine all your trades and work them out in a FIFO list, split and combining as necessary. It shows your long-term and short-term capital gains as well as all your Sales of Assets that can then be included in your IRS Form 8949.

You can also use specific identification to be able to change the order of your trades, which could be beneficial to make them long-term and reduce your tax liability.

It also does alt-coins and cross-coin trading. Cross-coin trading is done assuming they are NOT like-for-like and so calculates the fair value of a coin, e.g. if you bought 100 LTC for 1 BTC, it considers it a Sell of 1 BTC into USD with the daily average price, then buying 100 LTC with that USD. This was the gains on BTC and the cost basis on the LTC can all be calculated.

Check if out. It's free for BTC only trades and there is a Premium version for alt-coins and previous year.

Upload all your trade history into https://bitcointaxes.info.

We work out the cost basis, proceeds, short-term and long-term gains for every trade and organise in a FIFO list. You can also select average costing or specific identification, because it might be tax advantageous to defer some trades until they do become long-term.

All the data is then displayed ready to put straight into your 8949 form (for the US).

Mining is more complicated because it depends if you are a business or not. And then it depends if you consider it as immediately income and gains, or production and therefore all income.

e.g. if you mined 1 BTC last March. You could say you gained $10 income (whatever the price) and then you sell it in November for $1,000. You coin had a cost basis of $10 and you made $990 capital gains.

Or (and possibly how the IRS will go) you created a coin which has no income until you sell it. So in November you realize $1,000 income. Since it's better to have it as gains, you would need to show a more definite break of income and gains. Perhaps by selling the coin back in March, buying it back, then it's clear you made an investment.

If you are a business you can deduct your mining expenses, but not so as a hobbist.

So apparently I did not choose the best day to make that announcement.

Anyway, worth noting that if it turns out that we never get the coins back from MtGox, you will be able to report them as a loss next year, i.e when you file your 2014 taxes in 2015. However, the catch is that you need to be able to show the cost basis, and probably any other documentary evidence in case you are audited. This means you needed to have downloaded your trade history from MtGox.

It may be that they come back online, or in their Gox rebranding that they will give you access. I suggest you grab it as soon as you can if you have not already done so.

If you do lose coins, you can claim a loss for their cost basis only. So if you had bought 1 BTC in April 2013 for $100 and it's now gone, you can only claim $100.

The website will track the costs basis of each coin (part-coin really) you own and so you can more easily use it to determine it to calculate losses. For lost coins you can enter them as a Sell of price zero.

Sorry to anyone who has lost money or coins in this fiasco.

https://bitcoin.tax (formally https://bitcointaxes.info)

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2015-11-01: BitcoinTaxes has been updated to 2.0 ready for 2015.

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BitcoinTaxes calculates capital gains and income across Bitcoin and alt-coin transactions (trading, spending, income and mining) and shows summaries with an income report and capital gains report. The capital gains shows a breakdown of Sales of Assets that are included in your tax return (Schedule D - US) or for keeping records.

Import your data from any of the supported exchanges or wallets, either via a downloaded CSV file from their site or using their own API. Any previous positions can be imported or manually added, for example, if you owned coins from 2012 or before.

The costs basis are then calculated for each coin and the capital gains total calculated per individual coin. We use a selection of methods, such as the default First-In-First-Out, Average Costing, and Specific Identification (Last-In-First-Out, Highest-Cost-First-Out, Lowest-Cost-First-Out, Closest-Cost-First-Out). It can also calculate using like-kind treatment.



Supported Exchanges

• Bitfinex
• Bitstamp
• BTC-e
• CampBX
• CaVirtex
• Coinbase
• Cryptsy
• LocalBitcoins
• Kraken
• Mt.Gox
• Poloniex
• Virwox

A General CSV import is also provided for custom data or non-supported exchanges.

Support Income, Spending and Mining

• Core Wallet (all coins)
• BitPay
• Blockchain.Info
• CEX.IO
• Coinbase

Supported Countries and Currencies

Various countries tax years are supported, as well as gains rates for tax estimates:

• US - Tax year 1st Jan. Short and long term. Short term income rates, long term CG rates.
• Canada - Tax year 1st Jan. Average costing method. 50% tax rate.
• Germany - Tax year 1st Jan. Short and long term. Short term income tax rate. Long term zero rate.
• Australia - Tax year 1st July. Short and long term. Short term income rates, long term discounted rates.
• UK - Tax year 6th April.

For other countries, standard currencies can be used: USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, AUD, SEK, BRL, SGD, CNY, JPY, CHF, HKD, RUB.

Download formats:

• General CSV
• US IRS Form 8949 CSV
• TaxACT Stock import CSV
• TurboTax TXF (Tax Exchange Format)

FREE and Premium

The site is free up to 100 transactions for Bitcoin and any alt-coins. An unlimited premium version exists for $19.95 payable by card or in BTC.