Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says

Re:Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says by panarky on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @06:52PM (#15233728)

I bet the IRS data is wrong.

After all, it's not as if Schedule D [0] or Form 8949 [1] has a standardized way to report it.

There's no official ticker symbol, so you just write in a description.

I paid capital gains taxes on trading in 2015, and I wrote in something like "gain on sale of digital currency".

I can't believe I'm one of just 802 people to have paid taxes on these transactions.

[0] https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sd.pdf (pdf)

[1] https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8949.pdf (pdf)

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Re:Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says by nwatson on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @08:55PM (#15234562)

I paid capital gains on my sale of 325 BTC and used the profits to buy a Butterfly Labs Monarch mining machine.

I was unlucky ... BFL never got their engineering straight and the machine never appeared.

I was lucky ... I demanded a refund early and got back a full cash refund.

I was unlucky ... 325 BTC today would be worth US$1.35 million had I just held on instead of buying a BFL machine.

I was lucky ... my 325 BTC was held at Mt Gox and we know those BTC all vanished.

So ... I'm glad I made some decent gains back in the day, but I sure wish I still had the 325 BTC in a legitimate and safe form.

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Re:Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says by hossbeast on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @10:49PM (#15235128)

Thanks for sharing (it's genuinely interesting) but seems unrelated to GP's post.

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Re:Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says by otp124 on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @02:24AM (#15235976)

So, did you pay taxes on the BTC sale? I appreciate your story, but it's not really relevant. Did you comment on the wrong post?

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Re:Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says by lathiat on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @06:11AM (#15236927)

> I paid capital gains on my sale of 325 BTC and used the profits to buy a Butterfly Labs Monarch mining machine.

Did I miss something?

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Re:Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says by kingnothing on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @07:13PM (#15233879)

Absolutely this. I made some money in the first bitcoin bubble and paid taxes on it, but there certainly wasn't a "Bitcoin trading" option. I think my accountant set it up more or less as a misc capital gain.

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Re:Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says by the_evacuator on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @07:34PM (#15234034)

Yeah, my taxes always just summarize capital gains as "various" on Sched. D.

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Re:Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says by ringaroundthetx on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @10:42PM (#15235100)

Hm I definitely reported and I wonder if that is counted, I just checked my tax filings, I have 2014 and 2015 available

with Find "8949", as I was unsure of what document that was, I see that I reported a sell of BTC in 2014. I wonder if that was counted.

In 2015 I see a sell reported of Ether, because of the crowdsale selling. (Yes, and this is why I'm not rich). I wonder if that was counted

> Here is a paragraph from Utzke's affidavit that states only 802 individuals filed a bitcoin-related Form 8949 in 2015

Oops they only looked for bitcoin.

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Re:Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says by SilasX on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @07:00PM (#15233792)

I'm trying to do this legit, and I have some gains this year, but the attorney I consulted assured me that a) I wouldn't have to pay early estimated taxes, and b) I should likewise make the 8949 inconvenient to use (in my case, by mailing them a printout).

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Re:Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS Says by fapjacks on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @09:36PM (#15234779)

But but that doesn't fit the narrative the IRS is peddling.

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