I have not claimed my bitcoin cash nor bitcoin gold. Did most of you sell it for trade it for btc or altcoins? Which seems to be the best idea?
Also if you were to trade it for bitcoin... i assume that still counts as a capital gain? Or it does not? I know when you trade btc for usd or an altcoin, even though no usd is involved, there is a capital gain or loss. But what if you are converting your btc cash/gold to bitcoin? Obviously trading it for altcoin or usdt would count as a capital gain.
I am not a tax professional, but from what I understand the cost basis of those forked coins was zero. There's probably an argument to be made that they were a "gift", since you did nothing investment related to earn them. However, I'm betting IRS will be treating them as what happens when a publicly traded business spins off a unit as a separate company.
In any event, seek the advice of a tax professional. Also, you may consider donating either the forked coins or other crypto to a non-profit charity, which will allow you to offset capital gains. Depending on the accounting method you use for your holdings, (i.e. average cost basis vs. tracking specific purchases as separately), donation of coins can allow you to deduct as charitable contributions a decent amount of what would otherwise be taxable gains. Just make sure you get a receipt for your donations. It can reduce what you have to pay the tax man while helping out a worthy cause!
If it's craftily structured, it can possibly do even better... My non-profit, that is about to launch an Initial Donor Offering, is creating a hybrid structure for Internet 3.0/blockchain projects that allows donations to fund development, complete transparent governance (with open participation), and projects that are completed with the incubator process are spun-off as for-profits, where the donors can be rewarded for their contributions to the development. It's designed to raise the bar on the quality of projects that reach ICO/VC funding stage, which I believe is sorely needed, and to solve some other problems in the FinTech ecosystem, such as very difficult times dealing with legacy banks here in the United States.
You can check us out at
https://www.btric.org. Our whitepaper and IDO platform will be launched in a few days and I'm really excited about our prospects. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me on here or on my personal account which is BenOnceAgain.
Good luck!
(Once again, I am not your lawyer, tax professional, or financial advisor so nothing I've said is intended to replace competent advice of those professionals.)
