Declaring Bitcoin Income Part 1- Preparing Your Records

This is the second part of a multi-part series that will discuss how to declare Bitcoin income and claim Bitcoin losses and expenses on US personal or business income tax returns. What follows are my professional opinions and should not be construed as tax or accounting advice. Instead, the articles in this series should be used as the starting point for a discussion with your tax accountant about your individual situation. Back to Part 1- Preparing Your Records. Skip to Part 3- Bitcoin as an Asset. US Code Title 26, Section 61 defines gross income in the context of income taxes. Though....

This is the third part of a multi-part series that will discuss how to declare Bitcoin income on US personal or business income tax returns. What follows are my professional opinions and should not be construed as tax or accounting advice. Instead, the articles in this series should be used as the starting point for a discussion with your tax accountant about your personal situation. Back to Part 1- Preparing Your Records. Back to Part 2- Bitcoin As Ordinary Income. The IRS must answer two questions with regard to virtual currencies: what is their classification and when are gains or....

In early April the National Australia Bank (NAB) decided to cut ties with the bitcoin community and close any accounts that primarily dealt with the digital currency on May 2. The NAB believes dealing with digital currencies is too risky. Less than one week later, Australia’s first bitcoin ATM went live in Sydney, the first of several proposed ATMs in the land down under. To round off the month, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is preparing to meet with head figures of the Bitcoin industry along with accounting and tax experts to prepare guidelines on taxing and regulating all virtual....

Portugal, one of the countries considered a crypto tax haven due to its absence of crypto-related taxation, is preparing to change this policy. Fernando Medina, minister of finance of Portugal, stated that the country is working on a framework to allow the taxation of cryptocurrency income gains following the principles of “justice” and “efficiency,” and declared that there cannot be gaps for any income gains to be obtained without taxation. Portugal to Tighten Cryptocurrency Taxation Policy Portugal, one of the countries that has been touted as a....

I’m a bitcoin and cryptocurrency accountant, and I don’t have good news: The IRS hammer is coming down. Although the IRS issued guidance in March 2014 concerning income from bitcoin and "virtual currencies" (the IRS term), there has been no enforcement mechanism to ensure that bitcoin income is actually reported to the IRS. Having failed to create an enforcement mechanism, the IRS is taking a brute-force approach. The John Doe summons authorized on 30th November demands that Coinbase provide complete transaction records for all users between 30th December 2013 and 30th December....