Should we pay taxes on Bitcoin?

[gge]

Bitcoin was created to liberate us from corrupt governments and corporations that serve their own needs. The coinbase transaction in the genesis block, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto contained: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for bank". What is your opinion on paying taxes on Bitcoin? The government most likely doesn't know my bitcoin address. Even if they do find it, based on the transactions made from my bank account to exchanges, I could simply say someone stole the private key from me. Many of the posts here asking for help on filing taxes on their Bitcoin make no sense to me. We have a system that allows complete financial freedom and yet people choose to pay their taxes from it and support crooked governments.

[Kambal2000]

Why not pay if we are required to do so? right? We should pay taxes not because we have to or we need to but because we want to help street children, and a children that cannot afford to go to school or old people that has a high maintenance of medicine. In that way, we are helping the government as well as our neighbor.

[gge]

Street children can be helped directly, without the government acting as a middleman. The money is usually not used to help those in need, but rather to wage war and support corrupt insitutions.

[sukamasoto]

When government legalize bitcoin it means that they control bitcoin circulation and have a right to provide a tax on every government subject.
For me it's reasonable as long as the income tax is not being abuse.
There is also benefit for example : government accept bitcoin and bitcoin's demand getting greater and guess what the next ?

Yes, it's value also increasing !

[supermine]

You should pay the taxes if your country government has taxation system for crypto currencies.But many developing countries don't have any taxes yet for the bitcoins so you no need to pay any taxes you just can pay the income taxes which is supposed to pay annually if you earn more than the country limits.But we don't have to pay any taxes actually because bitcoin was a decentralized technology it was found to be fight against the centralized fiat system but the governments are making benefits from everything so they are controlling the crypto usages too.

[darkangel11]

Why not pay if we are required to do so? right? We should pay taxes not because we have to or we need to but because we want to help street children, and a children that cannot afford to go to school or old people that has a high maintenance of medicine. In that way, we are helping the government as well as our neighbor.

Really? Are you that brainwashed to believe it or you're just inexperienced and don't know what's going on around you?
What you're quoting is the foundation of the system, the reason why it was created, but it's not how it works nowadays. Once you realize that your local taxes are helping your neighbor, but your federal taxes help finance wars, build bombs, pay for luxury cars and plains for politicians, you will start looking at things differently.

You should pay the taxes if your country government has taxation system for crypto currencies.But many developing countries don't have any taxes yet for the bitcoins so you no need to pay any taxes you just can pay the income taxes which is supposed to pay annually if you earn more than the country limits.

Not only developing countries but all countries. There are no countries that require you to pay taxes for holding coins in your wallet.
You buy fiat - you pay taxes. It's reasonable.
You don't buy fiat - you don't owe them anything!

[avikz]

Bitcoin was created to liberate us from corrupt governments and corporations that serve their own needs. The coinbase transaction in the genesis block, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto contained: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for bank". What is your opinion on paying taxes on Bitcoin? The government most likely doesn't know my bitcoin address. Even if they do find it, based on the transactions made from my bank account to exchanges, I could simply say someone stole the private key from me. Many of the posts here asking for help on filing taxes on their Bitcoin make no sense to me. We have a system that allows complete financial freedom and yet people choose to pay their taxes from it and support crooked governments.

It's not that easy to say that someone stole your private key. If an government official comes to your place to enquire about your bitcoin investment, you must understand that the person is holding your financial records and he has analyzed it thoroughly. So you can't just say that your private key has been stolen. It is true that government doesn't always know your bitcoin address, but whenever you have made a transaction to any exchange, it is recorded for future references and work as a strong proof to the government officials.

However, it is always safer to pay tax on your bitcoin earning. Because when you pay tax on something, you can claim that thing as legal. So if you pay tax on your bitcoin holding, you will have upper hand on that government official. I always show my bitcoin earning in my tax information sheet under the "income from other sources" head and pay tax on it. I have been doing it since last two years now.

We don't really need government harassment in our daily life. So it is always better to stay on the safer side. 

[jjacob]

Bitcoin was created to liberate us from corrupt governments and corporations that serve their own needs. The coinbase transaction in the genesis block, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto contained: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for bank". What is your opinion on paying taxes on Bitcoin? The government most likely doesn't know my bitcoin address. Even if they do find it, based on the transactions made from my bank account to exchanges, I could simply say someone stole the private key from me. Many of the posts here asking for help on filing taxes on their Bitcoin make no sense to me. We have a system that allows complete financial freedom and yet people choose to pay their taxes from it and support crooked governments.

If you are not satisfied with the government, not paying taxes definitely is not the way to go about changing it. If you are guilty of tax evasion, there could be big fines and prison time waiting for you if you get caught. You may think that the government may not be able to catch you, but it is just not worth the risk.

[Alone055]

Keep your Bitcoins to yourself, and you have your liberty. No government can charge/is charging a person for just keeping Bitcoins to a wallet, or trading them on an exchange online, but you get to their territory when you reach out to a bank account to get your cash earned through Bitcoins, and that is where you are charged. So basically the taxation might not be for Bitcoin in most countries, but it is for the money you are receiving in your bank accounts which you can't hide from authorities. You can also not say your account number was stolen by someone and they sent the money yeah I know that was a bad joke, sorry.

[beskid]

And what did the government do to claim the tax on the crypto currency? Maybe they made her or lowered the cost of transactions? Or maybe they insured us from stealing the crypto currency? NO! That's why taxes should not be!

[Oceat]

Bitcoin was created to liberate us from corrupt governments and corporations that serve their own needs. The coinbase transaction in the genesis block, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto contained: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for bank". What is your opinion on paying taxes on Bitcoin? The government most likely doesn't know my bitcoin address. Even if they do find it, based on the transactions made from my bank account to exchanges, I could simply say someone stole the private key from me. Many of the posts here asking for help on filing taxes on their Bitcoin make no sense to me. We have a system that allows complete financial freedom and yet people choose to pay their taxes from it and support crooked governments.

The government can't tax Bitcoin but if you go to exchanges and withdraw some money out of it, that's the time they were going to tax you. Most of the exchanges nowadays are owned by the government and they should follow the law because it was implemented since there are too many complaints before of scamming using the name of Bitcoin.

[gge]

Bitcoin was created to liberate us from corrupt governments and corporations that serve their own needs. The coinbase transaction in the genesis block, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto contained: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for bank". What is your opinion on paying taxes on Bitcoin? The government most likely doesn't know my bitcoin address. Even if they do find it, based on the transactions made from my bank account to exchanges, I could simply say someone stole the private key from me. Many of the posts here asking for help on filing taxes on their Bitcoin make no sense to me. We have a system that allows complete financial freedom and yet people choose to pay their taxes from it and support crooked governments.

It's not that easy to say that someone stole your private key. If an government official comes to your place to enquire about your bitcoin investment, you must understand that the person is holding your financial records and he has analyzed it thoroughly. So you can't just say that your private key has been stolen. It is true that government doesn't always know your bitcoin address, but whenever you have made a transaction to any exchange, it is recorded for future references and work as a strong proof to the government officials.

However, it is always safer to pay tax on your bitcoin earning. Because when you pay tax on something, you can claim that thing as legal. So if you pay tax on your bitcoin holding, you will have upper hand on that government official. I always show my bitcoin earning in my tax information sheet under the "income from other sources" head and pay tax on it. I have been doing it since last two years now.

We don't really need government harassment in our daily life. So it is always better to stay on the safer side. 

My point is bitcoin allows us to be free from governments, yet I so many of us take the safe route and support governments via taxes.

[Aikidoka]

It is not a matter of helping the government. It is also a matter of helping needy people. As long as your intention is good and is about helping them, then you should not care about to whom the taxes are going. If they are only going to the government, then who cares anyway? You did actually a good job. Added to that, taxes is related to the bitcoin regulations. Would you rather get it banned or regulated?

[qwertyup23]

It is not a matter of helping the government. It is also a matter of helping needy people. As long as your intention is good and is about helping them, then you should not care about to whom the taxes are going. If they are only going to the government, then who cares anyway? You did actually a good job. Added to that, taxes is related to the bitcoin regulations. Would you rather get it banned or regulated?

The imposition of taxes are one of the key factors that increases the revenue of the government for expenditures, including development of infrastructure, budget allocation per department, funding for health bureaus and many more. Most countries around the world have the prerogative of imposing tax as its bread-and-butter for these enhancements. Most products and services are taxed as it is being regulated by the government.

The question of whether or not bitcoin transactions should be taxed by the government raises an issue of government regulation. We all know that bitcoin has this nature of being decentralized (which the government cannot regulate) which makes it almost impossible for regulation due to the anonymity involving transactions in the blockchain. But like what most people discussed, this HEAVILY DEPENDS ON THE LAWS ASSOCIATED WITH CRYPTOCURRENCY in general. If there exists no laws about the banning/imposing of tax, then we could say that bitcoin has the freedom on tax.

Bitcoin was created to liberate us from corrupt governments and corporations that serve their own needs. The coinbase transaction in the genesis block, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto contained: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for bank". What is your opinion on paying taxes on Bitcoin? The government most likely doesn't know my bitcoin address. Even if they do find it, based on the transactions made from my bank account to exchanges, I could simply say someone stole the private key from me. Many of the posts here asking for help on filing taxes on their Bitcoin make no sense to me. We have a system that allows complete financial freedom and yet people choose to pay their taxes from it and support crooked governments.

The government can't tax Bitcoin but if you go to exchanges and withdraw some money out of it, that's the time they were going to tax you. Most of the exchanges nowadays are owned by the government and they should follow the law because it was implemented since there are too many complaints before of scamming using the name of Bitcoin.

This is highly dependent per country as there are some factors to consider. Just to give you an example, the laws in my country relating to tax imposition on bitcoin do not exists. But bitcoin mining falls under the 'other income' aspect which makes it taxable. Some of my friends who mine pay tax to the government whenever they mine.

[SamsungBitcoin]

If you hold bitcoin you do not need to pay taxes for it but once youbsell it i think there will be a fee as representing as our taxes but that taxes will depend on the country. Here in my country bitcoin is not yet subject in taxes even you are earning too much money in crypto currency that is why our goverment build some rules and regulation in cryoto currency.

[squatter]

More of a question of ethics than law.

Bitcoin was created to liberate us from corrupt governments and corporations that serve their own needs. The coinbase transaction in the genesis block, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto contained: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for bank". What is your opinion on paying taxes on Bitcoin?

I'm not sure what one has to do with the other, specifically. When I read the whitepaper and early mailing list posts, Bitcoin is framed as a way to remove trusted third parties (like banks) from financial transactions. No more, no less. I see it as a tool, not as a reason to avoid paying taxes.

The government most likely doesn't know my bitcoin address. Even if they do find it, based on the transactions made from my bank account to exchanges, I could simply say someone stole the private key from me.

Unfortunately, the government probably knows a lot more than we think. And everything on the blockchain is permanent, so a lot of privacy attacks can be performed with no time limits. Whether you can just claim loss from theft is a matter of risk analysis. Maybe you can get away with it, maybe not. When it comes to the IRS, they might claim you owe taxes on holdings even if you lost them all to theft.

[shi07]

If the government require us to do so then why avoid it. It is everyone's social obligation to pay taxes. Here in my country, there is no regulation about bitcoin being taxed, so we just pay it forward when we convert it to fiat and when we buy things or services.

[gge]

Why not pay if we are required to do so? right? We should pay taxes not because we have to or we need to but because we want to help street children, and a children that cannot afford to go to school or old people that has a high maintenance of medicine. In that way, we are helping the government as well as our neighbor.

Really? Are you that brainwashed to believe it or you're just inexperienced and don't know what's going on around you?
What you're quoting is the foundation of the system, the reason why it was created, but it's not how it works nowadays. Once you realize that your local taxes are helping your neighbor, but your federal taxes help finance wars, build bombs, pay for luxury cars and plains for politicians, you will start looking at things differently.

You should pay the taxes if your country government has taxation system for crypto currencies.But many developing countries don't have any taxes yet for the bitcoins so you no need to pay any taxes you just can pay the income taxes which is supposed to pay annually if you earn more than the country limits.

Not only developing countries but all countries. There are no countries that require you to pay taxes for holding coins in your wallet.
You buy fiat - you pay taxes. It's reasonable.
You don't buy fiat - you don't owe them anything!

Agreed. I think banks closing bank accounts that deal with cryptocurrency exchanges will be a good thing in the long term. Many will realize the tyranny of the institutions surrounding us.

[makolz26]

Paying taxes will not make us poor, so don't be so pissed off whenever we are paying taxes as this is for the benefit of all of us, although a lot of corrupt politicians that is why I cannot blame you but for me it is already their conscience if they will corrupt for as long as we are not like them.

[bitcoinvamp]

Bitcoin was created to liberate us from corrupt governments and corporations that serve their own needs. The coinbase transaction in the genesis block, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto contained: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for bank". What is your opinion on paying taxes on Bitcoin? The government most likely doesn't know my bitcoin address. Even if they do find it, based on the transactions made from my bank account to exchanges, I could simply say someone stole the private key from me. Many of the posts here asking for help on filing taxes on their Bitcoin make no sense to me. We have a system that allows complete financial freedom and yet people choose to pay their taxes from it and support crooked governments.

You have a very different approach towards paying tax then mine as i think that if you are earning enough either from job or from bitcoin then you should pay tax as it could help in development of your neighbor and overall of your country. I don't know why it is such a big problem or issue for anyone as if anyone of you was only earning from your respective job then also you had to pay tax then why so much nonsense about paying tax on bitcoin.