
Another Internet Bubble Lesson (Pay Your Crypto Taxes) - krambs
https://medium.com/@Wuntusk/another-internet-bubble-lesson-pay-your-crypto-taxes-9b237547b3a8
======
feel_the_need
Does this include someone who buys BTC on coinbase but never sells it?

~~~
greenyoda
If BTC is treated as property (as the IRS says), then no. You'll only owe
capital gains tax on it at the point where you sell or exchange it. Your
capital gain will be the amount you sold it for minus the amount you bought it
for, minus any expenses incurred buying/selling it. (If you sell it for less
than you bought it for, you'll have a capital loss.) It's essentially treated
like shares of stock.

More details can be found in the IRS guidelines that were linked in the
article: [https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-
drop/n-14-21.pdf](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-14-21.pdf) (see questions
1, 6 and 7).

------
vinniejames
How is this a top post? "Pay your taxes because, um, you should, I mean talk
to a lawyer"

~~~
emodendroket
Probably because a lot of people who've gotten into Bitcoin mining don't have
any experience with significant taxable income that isn't a wage.

~~~
vinniejames
If you make thousands or millions trading an asset and think somehow you don't
owe taxes, you've got other problems than just the IRS

~~~
SuperNinKenDo
That's actually not what is being talked about in the article at all. I think
anybody would understand that if you make money by selling off your crypto,
you would owe taxes on it, that's not what the article is pointing out. The
article is pointing out that you may owe taxes on the value of crypto your
received at a certain time, or traded for another crypto at a certain
valuation, even if you never sold the asset for fiat money at that valuation.
Meaning you could owe hundreds of thousands in taxes on an asset that never
made you any money at all. That really is worth pointing out to people.

