
Coinbase Will Take IRS to Court Over Consumer Privacy Attack - walterbell
https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-will-take-irs-to-court-over-consumer-privacy-attack
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philiphodgen
Coinbase will fight vigorously -- for marketing purposes. Ultimately they will
lose and be forced to cough up data about their customers.

This is not because of bitcoin. That's just a distraction. This is about tax
evasion, which is an existential threat to a government. Without revenue, a
government dies. With visible disregard for laws, a government dies.

Coinbase must, therefore, submit. The Federal government has no alternative.
If the current laws are inadequate to the task (hint: the current laws are
quite adequate, thank you very much), additional laws will be enacted to
accomplish this.

If the Department of Justice can bend the biggest banks in the world to its
will, why should we expect Coinbase to be able to stand unbowed?

We need only look at recent history to predict Coinbase's future. Look at
enforcement actions against Swiss banks, and the massive fines imposed by the
U.S. This has acted as an efficient "pour encourager les actress" strategy.

Related: see the U.S. government's crusade against online gambling, or the way
the eBay tax data hole was plugged so that sales are now reported on Form
1099.

Prediction: Coinbase will provide data to the government.

Recommendation: if you use Bitcoin, report your income (oblig disclaimer). And
do business with companies that have zero contact with the U.S. -- no offices,
no assets, no owners, no employees.

(Disclosure. I am a tax lawyer. I have defended many, many innocent :-) Swiss
bank accounts against Federal tax evasion claims. I have dealt with tax
problems involving BTC as well. It's easy to predict the future.)

