Anyone who made 5000%+ returns over the past year or so should not be complaining about paying capital gains tax — it could have been worse and been classified as income tax. That said, it will have an impact on the price of Bitcoin as some people holding them will need to sell some of their coins ahead of tax filing next month.
Is that true? I thought your gains only get taxable if you cash out or spend it? And spending Bitcoin should have not really a big effect in these days...
Vinny made a good point here I think. There are probably some early-adopter bitcoin bulls who did lots of buying and selling in 2013 and only realized last month that they incurred capital gains tax when they sold.
Example:
Bob buys 1 btc in 2011 for $10
He is a hodl'er, but decides to try his hand at arbitrage in 2013 so he does this:
sell 1 btc at $110 in exchange A, and at the exact same time buy 1 btc at $100 in exchange B.
He figures he just gained $10 and knows in the back of his head that he'll have to pay tax on that, but it's only $10, no big deal. It's not until April 2014 that his tax advisor tells him that when he sold at $110, he incurred $100 in capital gains and needs to pay tax on the full $100. Which unfortunately means he needs to sell a little bit before April 15 rolls around
