[2018-02-13] Few Americans Reporting Cryptocurrency Trading to IRS

[SGMPhil]

Interesting article...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/few-americans-reporting-cryptocurrency-trading-irs-now-report-080242734--sector.html

[aso118]

Interesting article...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/few-americans-reporting-cryptocurrency-trading-irs-now-report-080242734--sector.html

This will change soon. The IRS has details about the large traders, which it has got from Coinbase. It might decide to prosecute a few traders and make an example out of them. The others will quickly fall in line.

[Carlton Banks]

This will change soon. The IRS has details about the large traders, which it has got from Coinbase. It might decide to prosecute a few traders and make an example out of them. The others will quickly fall in line.

Prosecutions require evidence.

The IRS need to do a much better job than usual to actually present any real evidence. There will be a high number of situations where the evidence simply doesn't exist to conduct a successful prosecution. This could be very resource consuming for the IRS with little success.

[btcton]

This isn't really very surprising as many of the people in bitcoin aren't exactly accepting of the big power that governments hold and would not like to use their bitcoin to support them (even if it is technically legally required). There seems to be a similar post at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2914963.0 which is somewhat related to it. Governments know that bitcoin owners are not paying up and they are trying to figure out ways to get them to do so. Each person's position on this might be different from the next, but reality stays that it is all rather flimsy and more research is going to be needed on their part to start enforcing tax payments to governments because of the nature of Bitcoin itself.

[1Referee]

Prosecutions require evidence.

The IRS need to do a much better job than usual to actually present any real evidence. There will be a high number of situations where the evidence simply doesn't exist to conduct a successful prosecution. This could be very resource consuming for the IRS with little success.

Correct, but the thing is that if the IRS at least in some situations shows it is willing to take the difficult path, it might scare off larger traders in the way that it makes them think it's basically pointless to show any form of resitance. One way or another, if the IRS puts its focus on something, they will get what they want from you. If it doesn't go naturally, they will use other measures to make you wish you did actually pay your taxes initially. Seriously, if the tax rates were fair and square, people would pay them without any problems, and that out of free will. Tax evasion is happening for a reason. No one should have the right to claim a large chunk of the capital you have been working for, and especially not by force, which is a common practice of the IRS. It's pure theft and nothing else.

[Kprawn]

This will change soon. The IRS has details about the large traders, which it has got from Coinbase. It might decide to prosecute a few traders and make an example out of them. The others will quickly fall in line.

Prosecutions require evidence.

The IRS need to do a much better job than usual to actually present any real evidence. There will be a high number of situations where the evidence simply doesn't exist to conduct a successful prosecution. This could be very resource consuming for the IRS with little success.

It is simply stupidity to use Coinbase {regulated exchange} and then think that the IRS will not hunt you down, if you did

not pay taxes on your trading. I think most unregulated exchanges and also person to person trades cannot be traced and

people think they can get away with that. Try to explain to the IRS, how you bought that Tesla with your average weekly

wage. They will do a full audit on your finances and you will have to explain where that money came from. 

[J. Cooper]

Interesting article...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/few-americans-reporting-cryptocurrency-trading-irs-now-report-080242734--sector.html

This will change soon. The IRS has details about the large traders, which it has got from Coinbase. It might decide to prosecute a few traders and make an example out of them. The others will quickly fall in line.

This could potentially be the case here. Glad I didn't commit to send my documents over there. The fact that they gave up those documents that quickly is another big reasons for me to never do business with them. I'm keeping an eye out for the way the IRS will handle this information and if they will be able to enforce the law onto these big crypto traders. Of whom they certainly got some interesting documents thanks to coinbase.

[Samarkand]

... There will be a high number of situations where the evidence simply doesn't exist to conduct a successful prosecution. ...

Why do you think that this is the case? The average American, who bought in during the
recent bull run probably simply purchased his Bitcoins from Coinbase. Coinbase already
provided the authorities with a list of customers above a certain trading volume after losing
a litigation and I expect that they will have to do exactly the same again.

It obviously is more difficult for the IRS if altcoin exchanges like Binance are involved in the
transactions of a user.

[Carlton Banks]

... There will be a high number of situations where the evidence simply doesn't exist to conduct a successful prosecution. ...

Why do you think that this is the case?

As long as people using Coinbase (and I should stress, not everyone does) don't also sell using Coinbase, then they have alot of options as to how to obscure what happened to their BTC after they withdraw their funds to a private wallet. That makes the evidence that those people realised capital gains difficult to discover.