We have been following for years (see here) the steps that the United States Internal Revenue Service has taken to sensitize taxpayers to the need for them to properly report sales of cryptocurrency. There did not, however, seem to be any criminal cases brought for failure to do so. That is why the federal indictment against Frank Ahlgren III that was made public earlier this month was interesting. Unlike prior cryptocurrency criminal tax cases, which…
On January 16, 2024, the United States Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department announced the delay of the reporting requirements for businesses who receive USD 10,000 or more in digital assets, pursuant to section 6050I. Section 6050I obligates any person who receives USD 10,000 or more in cash, in the course of their trade or business, in a single or multiple related transactions, to report such to the IRS using Form 8300. Form 8300 requires…
On August 25, 2023, the United States Treasury Department issued a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding tax reporting by brokers of transactions involving the sale or exchange of digital assets (“Proposed Regulations”). These long-awaited Proposed Regulations are in response to section 80603 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which expanded the scope of information reporting obligations for brokers under Code section 6045 to cover transfers of digital assets. Baker McKenzie has prepared an…
We have previously reported (here and here) on the refund lawsuit that a couple, the Jarretts, brought against the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Jarrett produced Tezos tokens, a form of cryptocurrency, through a process known as “staking” — a system being used by more and more blockchains. As Jarrett saw things, staking uses existing Tezos tokens and computing power to produce new tokens. Thus, he argued, he would owe taxes on the tokens only…
In Revenue Ruling 2023-14, issued July 31, 2023, the IRS ruled that a cash-method taxpayer that receives additional units of cryptocurrency as rewards for validating transactions on a proof-of-stake blockchain must recognize the fair market value of the validation rewards as income in the taxable year in which the taxpayer gains dominion and control over the validation rewards. This is broadly consistent with the IRS views previously expressed on the treatment of mining income. In…
On July 11, 2023, the United States Senate solicited input from the public on the appropriate treatment of digital assets under US federal income tax law. Noting that uncertainty over the application of existing laws to transactions involving digital assets creates complex tax reporting issues for taxpayers, the Senate signaled that legislation may be required to provide adequate guidance to the industry and the public. Click here to access a full discussion of the matter.
On 27 April 2023, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) released a second consultation regarding the taxation of transactions in the Decentralised Finance (DeFi) market. In short, HMRC proposes to legislate to ensure that the use of cryptoassets in certain DeFi transactions would no longer give rise to a taxable disposal, but instead would trigger taxation only when the assets are economically disposed of in a non-DeFi transaction. This is a significant step for HMRC and the UK…
Washington based think tank Coin Center has brought a lawsuit against, among others, the United Sates Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service regarding a reporting requirement included in last year’s major infrastructure legislation. We wrote at that time about the criticism of the bill with respect to the reporting burdens that were going to be placed on “brokers” of “digital asset” transfers. The Coin Center lawsuit focuses on the so-called Section 6050I reporting requirement, which…
On May 16, 2022, the Australian Tax Office issued a publication that identified four key focus areas for the 2021-22 tax year. These four are areas where the ATO says they see people making mistakes. One of the areas is capital gains from crypto assets. The ATO plans to ensure that there is an appropriate level of scrutiny on correct reporting of deductions and income for the priority areas. The ATO warned that taxpayers who…
On April 25, 2022, European Central Bank Executive Board member Fabio Panetta delivered a speech at Columbia University in New York in which he was very critical of cryptoassets. As indicated in the title of the speech — “For a Few Cryptos More: the Wild West of Crypto Finance” — Mr. Panetta compared cryptocurrencies to the Wild West gold rush in the United States in the second half of the 19th century (while also working…