Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this particularly nasty surprise from the IRS and Coinbase:

Long story short, Coinbase is reporting ALL staking income to the IRS, from way back when ETH staking went online in 2020. It's not just for 2023 or since April 2023, when you could first unlock and sell your ETH staking rewards.

Needless to say, that's going to be a hefty extra tax bill for those who staked since the start. Even worse, you get hit whether or not you sell your ETH rewards for US dollars. As I gather, Coinbase is basically using the ETH prices of April 2023 to decide the US dollar amount to report to the IRS (on form 1099-MISC).

This is the first time you need to pay tax in US dollars for staking rewards that were never sold and remain as ETH.

Can anyone confirm or disprove this? I hope I'm wrong, but somehow it doesn't seem so.

Anyone else here still waiting to see what happens with their MtGox claim? I filed via the Kraken option and check every now and then, but it's been years and apparently they're still investigating. All I get is the occasional email about some proceedings within the Toyoyama or Fukushima Prefecture Court or something and Mr. Watanabe or Mr. Fujimoro or someone else with a Japanese name meeting to discuss something or other of no apparent relevance to the question of whether any money is coming.

Given that BTC is worth just a "little" more now, I'm just starting to wonder about the prospects again, even though I had written this off years ago. Anyone got any ideas as to the chances of getting back anything?

When the ethereum fork happened, Coinbase credited their customers with an amount of ETC equal to their ETH held at the time. ETC was under $1 then, but got to over $20 and now sits at around $14. That makes it nontrivial money given to you for nothing. If you had, say, 100 ETH, you'd have around $1400 worth of ETC right about now.

When the bitcoin fork happens, is something like this likely to happen as well? Could BCC similarly appreciate in price?

I don't have a crystal ball, but shouldn't everybody and his uncle be making sure they get whatever BCC is due them?

Moreover, I just don't quite get Coinbase vs. Kraken on this. Coinbase says that they will give you no BCC, while Kraken will give you your BCC. What's wrong with this picture? If BCC appreciates like ETC, won't people be shooting themselves over having missed the chance to get their free BCC that was due them?

Long story short, if you have some of the "free" ETC from the ETH/ETC fork a while back, what should the IRS cost basis be?

Long story long, I lucked out in receiving some of that ETC due to buying ETH during a particular time window. (I'm actually still not sure how one could get something for nothing like this, but I'll happily accept whatever the system wants to give me.) Due to the recent ETC price appreciation, this is now starting to be worth something, and I'm considering cashing out. However, I've no idea about the tax treatment of the proceeds, whether it be the cost basis or the nature of the gains (regular income, capital gain, or whatnot). Moreover, given that both H&R Block and the IRS looked at me like I grew a third head in simpler matters, I hesitate even to bother to consult with them.

Thanks for any suggestions.

There must be someone in the same boat, but a good number of web searches turned up little, except that the IRS considers bitcoins to be property, not currency.

Long story short, I wired some funds to MtGox and bought BTC just before they went under (yeah, I know, but it's a long story). The money is gone now, of course, but I've no idea what kind of a tax loss can be claimed. All I have is an emailed receipt from MtGox indicating how much USD arrived.

I don't know if it even matters that I bought BTC or not... I can simply say that I wired money to an account aaaand... it's gone, just as in the South Park skit.

Thanks for any suggestions.