Are bitcoin bounties legal?

[TTBit]

Is a BTC bounty to recover the "lost" Lois Lerner emails legal?

- The person recovering would be anonymous.
- The content of the emails would only be seen by those in the investigation, not asking for them to be published.

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[BitcoinLlama]

I don't think this is a bounty as much as you're just hiring a private investigator...

[Levis]

I believe that it is legal. It is essentially a transaction under a contract of donation

[InwardContour]

As long as the act the bounty is paying for is not illegal then there is no issue with a bitcoin bounty.

Most rewards in the way that bounties are handled are done in an anonymous way even before bitcoin was in existence.

[Cicero2.0]

It depends on what lengths the investigator goes to get the e-mails. If he/she hacks into government computers to do it I am pretty sure that would be illegal.

[Captain America]

And why the bounty should be illegal? Who can explain it to me?

[Swordsoffreedom]

Bounties are legal people call private investigators to look up something all the time or the observe someone
Paying in Bitcoin makes no difference in general if people want to get information how they pay does not matter, the objective can be though but it depends I guess.

[kuusj98]

Why would it not be legal? You offer money for a service, easy as that no?

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm 99% sure it is legal.

[prophetx]

if it is over $600 and you are a US entity and cannot confirm that the other party is not a US entity then you need to withhold tax at some rate (30% i think?).

that's about it assuming you are not asking them to break any law in carrying out that bounty.  

it's no different then paying in cash or any barter transaction

[The00Dustin]

if it is over $600 and you are a US entity and cannot confirm that the other party is not a US entity then you need to withhold tax at some rate (30% i think?).

that's about it assuming you are not asking them to break any law in carrying out that bounty. 

it's no different then paying in cash or any barter transaction

Oh, really?  So when you take your car to the shop and the transmission is busted you withhold tax when paying for the repair?


I didn't think so.  Pretty sure the only entities who are allowed to withhold tax are companies who sell items plus are certified/licensed to collect sales tax and companies who pay employees on payroll and are required to withhold taxes (and pay additional taxes) based on the amount of pay in the given year amongst other factors.  If you are a contractor, your customers don't withhold taxes, but corporate customers do have to report on a form when they pay over something like $600 to any specific contractor.  If individuals had to even report every time they paid over $600 for something, any individual who had an expensive car or house repair bill would be in violation of that law.


Also, a bit of trivia, while I don't know if it is still the case, at one point, FedEx didn't have its drivers on payroll and instead treated them as independent contractors.  At that time, FedEx didn't withhold payroll taxes (or pay the additional payroll taxes), but instead only reported the total payments to their "individual contractors."  This meant FedEx drivers had to pay double (or more with certain Bush-era tax breaks) the taxes other people on a payroll had to pay for a given tax.


ETA: In regards to reporting on a form, it may be a form 1099, but even if it's not, the reporting requirement is over $600 (or something) per year to one entity, not over $600 (or something) at once.

[InwardContour]

if it is over $600 and you are a US entity and cannot confirm that the other party is not a US entity then you need to withhold tax at some rate (30% i think?).

that's about it assuming you are not asking them to break any law in carrying out that bounty.  

it's no different then paying in cash or any barter transaction

This is not true. Obamacare originally required business to business transactions over $600 to be reported to the IRS, but there was not withholding requirement, only a reporting requirement. This part of the law was later repealed as it was too burdensome, even for liberals. 

[Swordsoffreedom]

They are fine especially when you have cases where you would need to find someone guilty of  something
I saw this thread and someone made a bounty using Bitcoin so it has precedence

Dear HEADHUNTERS,

43% of any btc I will be able to get back IF you find the identity of the thief!

If the whole amount will be returned to me (1170BTC) that would be 500BTC.

https://blockchain.info/nl/address/1GwNLwoCQiobJzmURSAq54vH4BYjFkwaxr

FIND HIM!!!

So yes this and the lerner e-mails would be good examples of a Bounty request in Bitcoins and should be legal.

[Divinespark]

How is that different from appointing a private investigator to track down somebody?
Still of course up to a physical court of law to determine that wrongdoing has in fact occurred

[InwardContour]

How is that different from appointing a private investigator to track down somebody?
Still of course up to a physical court of law to determine that wrongdoing has in fact occurred

It is really no different except that you generally pay a PI in advance verses a bounty after success, however this fact really does not matter.

[openyourmind]

Why bounties should be illegal? It can be viewed like the gift, that's why IMO  bounties are legal

[coory]

i think its legal

[keithers]

As long as the act the bounty is paying for is not illegal then there is no issue with a bitcoin bounty.

Most rewards in the way that bounties are handled are done in an anonymous way even before bitcoin was in existence.

I think this is correct. Just as long as you are not paying a reward for making someone commit an illegal act, you should be ok. If you are in fact paying someone to do something illegal,  often times you will end up in more legal trouble than the person who was your bounty hunter

[mkmdoc]

I think most of the companies are spending millions of dollars for promotional activities. So it is always legal if the everything is legal because companies will show their activities at the time of Taxes. So, I think bounties will legal whether in terms of Bitcoin or Altcoin.

[alva 666]

i  think it is legal .

BTW who’s Lois Lerner ?

[darkangel11]

i  think it is legal .

BTW who’s Lois Lerner ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Lerner

Bounties are always legal to some extent. For instance if you post a bounty for people to find your missing friend it's totally legal, but if you post a bounty so that they find and turn his life into hell it's not legal. I'd say if a person is under investigation and your research could help to close the case it should be legal.

[Ioann11]

If you pay a service to a person, and in your country payment by Bitcoins is not punishable by law, then I do not see any crime in this.
This is of course purely my opinion .....
Good luck!

[imstillthebest]

If you pay a service to a person, and in your country payment by Bitcoins is not punishable by law, then I do not see any crime in this.
This is of course purely my opinion .....
Good luck!

you got a good point here but i think even if its illegal on your country  you can still accept and recieve bitcoin online but you should also spent it online so that you will be safe  .

bitcoin does not have bounties but altcoins or tokens are the coins that is mainly being used in bounties  . they are legal if they are legit and if they follow the forum rules  .

[marcbitcoins]

The only situation i see that a certain bounty is illegal if it was given to the hunters without abiding the regulation policy like the KYC requirement in which if you did not comply then for sure your rewards will be declared illegal and the government might accuse you of money laundering.

[Klausi]

The only situation i see that a certain bounty is illegal if it was given to the hunters without abiding the regulation policy like the KYC requirement in which if you did not comply then for sure your rewards will be declared illegal and the government might accuse you of money laundering.

I concur, each tracker should give their full personality concerning KYC necessities and that is ought to be in line to the legitimateness of the undertaking too. Every single members ought to consent since it will indicate transparency towards the group who dealt with the bounty program.

[RomanPesha]

Hello, but why not? Why you think that it is illegal? I think that this is legal way to earn some money.

[Flor1982]

Bounty job is just to advertise the commodities of the company and i don't see any illegal in this concept althought sometime we mistakenly to advertise scam projects but that is not hunters fault. The only thing that could make bounty is illegal is if Crypto is declared illegal in your country in which all activities that connected to crypto is punishable by the law.

[nrnahid]

Most rewards in the way that bounties are handled are done in an anonymous way even before bitcoin was in existence.