1 sat \ 2 replies \ @OT 3 Oct \ parent \ on: Thoughts on Bitcoin and Taxes - how does this make any sense? bitcoin
If you use the same LN wallet it should be easy. Some LN wallets have built in fiat conversions. So all you have to do is download the monthly spreadsheet and put some equations on there.
I haven't been accounting these small zaps back and forth. If they ever pulled me up on it I might have to pay like $20 in taxes. It wouldn't be worth it for them to come knocking in my door.
I haven't spent much either. But I feel it's the principle of it.
I understand if people are buying really 'lavish' things - things they wouldn't normally spend dollars or euros on. Ridiculous cars or watches and crap... I'll give the IRS that.
But for small daily expenses there shouldn't be taxes on any of this stuff.
I've been reading about a 'legal foreign currency' argument where under 200$ of 'gains' won't be taxed. But I don't know if that's actually true.
reply
I am one who promotes the position that bitcoin is foreign currency and therefore taxpayers don't have to report gains from expenditures where the gain is less than $200. It is worth noting that the government has produced guidance on how to
assess whether someone "really" qualifies for the de minimis exemption or is just trying to evade taxes by "claiming" to use a "currency" as money that just happens to have appreciated rapidly in price.
To make this assessment, they say to apply metrics "substantially similar to" the following:
(1) Does the person live in a country that calls that currency its money?
(2) Does the person keep any records denominating their day-to-day cash flow in that currency?
(3) Does the person keep any records denominating their monthly income and expenses in that currency?
(4) Does the person borrow that currency or loan it out?
(5) Does the person sell any goods or services for that currency?
(6) Does the person price those goods and services in that currency and price other financial decisions in that currency?
(7) Has the person been doing this a long time or does it look like they just started doing it when the tax authorities started watching?
(8) Do they have a lot of volume associated with treating that currency as their money or are they just doing it a little bit so they have something to point to?
These metrics, under slightly more formalized language, are outlined in this legal text: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/1.985-1
Specifically, the section "Facts and circumstances," also called section (c)(2) of that document. In the original document, the metrics are listed as A---H rather than 1---8.
This legal text and these metrics are cited later in the same document (see "examples") to determine whether someone who claims to use a foreign currency -- and therefore gets special treatment in their taxes -- really qualifies or is just evading taxes:
"[Suppose] The currency of Country A is [called] LC. [Suppose] All of [someone's] purchases, sales, and expenses are [denominated] in...LC. [And suppose] The laws of [Country] A require [residents] to keep books and records in...LC... [In that case] LC is the currency of [the aforementioned person] under United States generally accepted accounting principles. This determination is based on facts and circumstances substantially similar to those set forth in paragraph (c)(2) of this section."
In the example they are specifically talking about an example case where someone lives in a foreign country but pays taxes in the USA and therefore claims the local currency (LC) deserves special tax treatment. With bitcoin, its a bit different assuming you live in the USA, but this still shows those metrics are the ones to apply to determine whether you really receive and spend bitcoin as a currency or just claim to do so to evade taxes.
Therefore, I recommend building up records to satisfy the metrics:
Keep some receipts denominated in bitcoin (e.g. paid lightning invoices probably qualify) to show you use it as part of your daily cash flow.
Print out your wallet history on a monthly basis, including bitcoin purchases that you send into your wallet, and write an executive summary each month so you can show you record your monthly income and expenses in bitcoin.
I don't know how you can borrow bitcoin and lend it; no one seems to offer that kind of service, and I'm not sure what you would use borrowed btc for. But maybe think about ways to do that, and if you can think of a use case, bring it up at a bitcoin meetup and make a microlending community that uses bitcoin for financing.
Make a webshop and sell legal stuff for bitcoin; I sell my workshop courses in bitcoin (supertestnet.org/workshops.html). And keep records so you can show it's a normal money for you.
Price those things in bitcoin.
Build a reputation of doing so for a long time.
Do it a lot.
And then, if you get audited for not reporting your bitcoin expenditures (the ones less than $200), show the assessor all your evidence that according to the government's own metrics, it's a currency for you, so you qualify for the exemption. And if the IRS sues you anyway, show your evidence to the judge.
If bitcoin is really your money, show it. Keep evidence of it. We can win.
reply