What happens if Satoshi has to pay taxes?

[JimboToronto]

Satoshi probably has a job

I think he/she/they are smarter than that.

[tspacepilot]

Can you pay a capital gain tax if you didn't originally invest capital?  I mean Satoshi literally invented bitcoins so you couldn't say that he invested X and calculate a gain from X.  If X is 0, you get "undefined".

Yes, your cost basis would be 0 so 100% of your gains would be taxed at the appropriate rate.

I don't know nothing about tax laws but allow me to ask you to confirm this:  if I dig a piece of capital out of my mind and then sell it I have to pay capital gains taxes on the earnings?

In any case, the poster above who pointed out that Satoshi hasn't liquidated his bitcoin seems to have a good point.

[AnswerQuestion]

But what if Satoshi dies and the estate has to pay taxes. There can be deemed capital gains on death and / or estate taxes depending on the jurisdiction.

If he dies in the US then he would need to pay estate taxes on the entire value of the estate (including the bitcoin). It would not pay any taxes on the capital gains. His heirs would then have a cost basis of the value of the coins at the time he died.