ETH and ETC tax treatment

[ekstremista]

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.

[White sugar]

first, you can prove you received the coins from free and they are not from some illegal activity?

[ekstremista]

first, you can prove you received the coins from free and they are not from some illegal activity?

Certainly, this was done through Coinbase. They don't support ETC, but for ETH purchasers, they offered the option to send any incoming ETC to an external address. I sent to a Bittrex wallet.

The IRS has never liked the idea of something for nothing, but in this case, that's exactly what it was. Given ETC's recent price appreciation, there's more of the something from nothing each day.

[Red-Apple]

i'm afraid regular users on bitcointalk can not help you unless on some rare occasion one of them had encountered this situation and did some proper research.

try asking this in legal board: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=74.0
maybe someone there can help you with a better advice.

also it would be best if you consult a real professional. someone whose job is to consult on tax paying issues (don't know what that job is called in English but like a tx lawyer/consultant or something).

[PovertyByte]

Simple fact is that the fork caused this. I would have just shapeshifted the ETC to ETH and cashed out the ETH to Coinbase or held it. Give the IRS records of your ETC ShapeShift transaction into ETH and the ETH sold to coinbase. Or do not eve bother telling the IRS because maybe them and H&R block and all those so called financial advisors need to get with the times and stop looking at you like a 3 headed cerberus