I just came across this news: https://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoin-tax-looms-irs-orders-coinbase-turn-over-user-data/ and it got me kinda anxious about my tax report for next year. So, I bought 1 Bitcoin on Coinbase last February and still have it. Do I need to list this as an asset? Or can I just brush it off?
Coinbase already reported you to the respective government so you have to report your holding asset especially when you are from US.
https://cryptotax.io/en-us/bitcoin-and-taxes-in-the-usa-2/ here you can find the explained details about the taxation for bitcoin in USA.
It's a pretty old news, at least two months old. People have already started receiving warnings from IRS. See below,
https://news.bitcoin.com/10000-american-cryptocurrency-owners-will-receive-warning-letters-from-the-irs/
A staggering number of 10,000 people are on the list. You should report your crypto assets if you haven't done already!
If you're from the US, I'd say it's better to comply and have your taxes reported rather than leaving it as is and worry next. There's nothing wrong in complying and just following the rules since that's what we have to do anyway, and there's a huge chance that Coinbase already submitted your tax details to the government so the only option for you really is to comply and file a tax report. You can ignore it but the repercussions are yours alone to handle anyway so yeah, your call.
If you've only bought bitcoins and haven't sold them, there's no tax liability yet. Once you actually sell, trade or spend some coins, you need to report the gains on Schedule D and Form 8949 of your tax return.
It sounds like you can just ignore this for now.
There is no such thing as capital gains when you are just holding them in your wallet/crypto exchange as long as it's not sold in fiat currency you won't be held liable to capital gains tax and you are not required to report it in you taxes not until you have sold it. Also you really don't jave to worry about the IRS knocking in your door, as long as you didn't falsify any information in your tax report the worst thing you will get is a re-audit for your taxes and you won't go to jail because you didn't know how to compute your taxes in the first place.
that's not totally true. selling for altcoins is definitely a taxable event under the USA tax code.
let's say you bought LTC with BTC. you're supposed to treat that transaction as if you're selling BTC for USD, then buying LTC with that USD. it's annoying but the 2018 tax code established firmly that cryptocurrency does not qualify for tax-exempt like kind exchanges.
the IRS treats spending BTC on goods and services as taxable too.
i don't believe the IRS has prosecuted any cases like this yet, but one agent has suggested that pleading ignorance may not be good enough:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hanktucker/2019/06/13/irs-agent-who-took-down-silk-road-turns-his-attention-to-recreational-bitcoin-investors/#366d88881ad1
It seems like if you only buy btc and hold it, you don't have to.
But let say you want to buy altcoin like lisk. Then you have to since in order to get lisk, you have to buy btc to do it.
So those ppl who buy altcoins, have lot of transactions right if they plan to say buy a lot of altcoins and hold?
Sorry I'm mixing up our taxing laws in my country to the US' one. If you treat each transaction as a USD on coin to coin purchases then you don't have no choice but to calculate whether or not you have a short term realized gain. What I mean about a realized gain is after you have subtracted all the costs, fees and commissions associated to the transaction which gives you the true gain in that transaction. This kind if method that the US is requiring looks like a pain in the ass especially when you document each transaction. No wonder why a lot of people are discouraged in paying their taxes nor enter the crypto market.
I think it has to be according to the tax law of your domicile.
If you don't report your asset, would it be treated as tax evasion?
That is the question that you would ask yourself.
^ The question is, is crypto in your place are taxable? If you are still holding that bitcoin until now in your wallet there's nothing to worry and tax reporting to them is not necessary. You can hold it as long as you can and they have nothing to do. But when you convert it into fiat and cash out I think there's a fee but not consider as a tax.
In many countries there is no actual jail punishment for the tax evasion that is why people are not serious when it comes to tax payment because they know that they can pay the penalty amount to the government if the find,and for the people like doing it with few thousand dollars then chances of getting by them is very low.
He seems to be worried about IRS as mentioned by the other folks above, he shouldn't worry if he's still keeping the 1 bitcoin he had. Each country has different ruling about taxation.
But as long as he takes it as 'profit', then he should report and comply to be worry less.
If you're US citizen as I know and coinbase and bittrex user if I'm not wrong both exchnage asking kyc and derictly reported to IRS all US citizen who have an bitcoin are subject to pay tax. So it's you can't ignore that regulation because US file to you an criminal case if ignore it.
Well, that is right. Well maybe if you are from the country of US you should be worried about it but in other countries, there is no need to worry about your tax report because the government has no control in crypto so you don't need to declare it to them. The only fee that you are going to pay is when you are going to withdraw your money from remittance and consider as a fee or tax for me. Luckily, here in my country reporting tax is not necessary when it comes crypto.
I think that you don't have to declare it as an asset.
You will just have to report any profit you may make as an investment profit.
If you want to be fully transparent you should better pay a visit to an accountant which is expert in cryptocurrency cases.
My understanding is that tax will only applied if you start converting your Bitcoin to fiat then those converted fiat will be your income which will be an income tax that need to be declared but in your case you are just holding Bitcoin so reporting it as an asset will be an appropriate and will be taxed only after changing it to fiat.