May 18, 2017 - 2 Coinbase customers join battle to stop IRS bitcoin tax summons
The summons prompted law firm Berns Weiss to intervene on behalf of its own managing partner, Jeffrey Berns, who is also a customer of Coinbase. The IRS then asked another federal judge in March to enforce the summons, which Coinbase said it intended to fight.
May 10, 2017 - IRS Crime Team Nabs Award For Investigation Into The Dark Web, Drugs & Bitcoin
There are six award categories:Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Review Task Force, Transnational Organized Crime, Transnational Security Threats, Cyber Threats, Significant Fraud, and Third-Party Money Launderers. Winners are selected from federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.
April 25, 2017 - Florida Lawmakers Want Bitcoin Covered Under Money Laundering Law
Florida lawmakers want virtual currencies like bitcoin covered under the state’s money-laundering statute, a change that supporters claim would ensure criminals cannot use Internet-based currencies to conceal financial activities, according to The Miami Herald.
April 18, 2017 -- Financial Spring Cleaning: For Bitcoin, Save All Records
The admonition came last November in the form of what is called a John Doe summons to Coinbase to give the IRS the information the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency wallet and exchange had on all of its users for three years, including everything from a user’s confirmed devices to every line of correspondence between Coinbase and its users, which at the moment, total 6.4 million. (Don’t panic — Coinbase hasn’t handed over any data yet.)
April 18, 2017 - Taxes From A To Z (2017): V Is For Virtual Currency
FinCEN defines virtual currency as "a medium of exchange that operates like a currency in some environments, but does not have all the attributes of real currency."
April 18, 2017 - Why Americans Need To Care About Digital Currency Accounting, Especially At Tax Time
Not all of us realize that despite the exponential adoption of digital currency across the country, and the vague IRS guidance issued over three years ago, law still applies. Every trade made is a taxable event, and given bitcoin’s historic bull run from Q3 2016 to today, most users should be “up,” especially on bitcoin,
April 10, 2017 - When you file your taxes this year, your accountant might ask if you own any bitcoin.
the IRS says in no uncertain terms, “virtual currency is treated as property. General tax principles applicable to property transactions apply to transactions using virtual currency.”
April 10, 2017 - No, you can’t avoid taxes by investing in Bitcoin
“802 individuals reported a transaction on Form 8949 using a description likely related to bitcoin” for 2015, the most recently concluded tax year. And this is apparently no fluke, with only 807 of the Form 8949s filed for 2013 and 893 for 2014.
March 29, 2017 - Bitcoin: 'Blood Diamonds' Of The Digital Era
“Bitcoin shines in anonymous online payments and most day-to-day and/or point-of-sale payments don’t require this level of anonymity or the complexity it brings along with it.”
March 28, 2017 - Is Bitcoin Gambling Legal in the United States?
It is worth nothing the IRS has not taken an official stance on bitcoin gambling yet. Even though it is possible for gamblers to make a profit, get paid out in bitcoin and convert their winnings to US Dollars, the IRS is not concerned about this scenario.
March 28, 2017 - IRS Crackdown on Bitcoin Exchange Fuels Privacy Worries
A John Doe summons allows the IRS to obtain information about all taxpayers in a group or class of people, even if the government doesn't know their individual identities. The IRS has used that authority in the past to identify U.S. taxpayers hiding money in offshore bank accounts.
March 22, 2017 - Court docs reveal less than 1,000 people report to IRS about bitcoin
Utzke said he ran a computer analysis on the IRS’s tax records and found out that less than a thousand people filed a Form 8949 for a “property description likely related to bitcoin.” Under current IRS rules, bitcoin owners are required to declare their profits using the said form.
March 20, 2017 - New IRS Filing Tries to Force Coinbase Into Handing Over its Data
The tax agency’s fight to obtain records on users between the years 2013 and 2015 has entered a new chapter, coming months after the IRS first sought court approval for its "John Doe" subpoena in November. Since then, both Coinbase and one of its customers, Jeffrey Berns, have filed to intervene in the case in a bid to stop what both parties have blasted as a regulatory overreach.
March 20, 2017 - IRS: 800 People Per Year Reporting and Falling
Escalating mining fees caused Coinbase to halt payment of fees for customer transactions from March 21, while most recently, it even began advising customers not to hold funds on its exchange books.
March 20, 2017 - Only 802 People Told the IRS About Bitcoin—Lawsuit
Those results reflect that in 2013, 807 individuals reported a transaction on Form 8949 using a property description likely related to bitcoin; in 2014, 893 individuals reported a transaction on Form 8949 using a property description likely related to bitcoin; and in 2015, 802 individuals reported a transaction on Form 8949 using a property description likely related to bitcoin.