IRS sends warning letters to more than 10k cryptocurrency holders

Re:IRS sends warning letters to more than 10k cryptocurrency... by benburleson on Friday July 26, 2019 @05:46PM (#20538629)

The wording is a bit slippery. I believe that one could get into big trouble for truly not knowing they were not in compliance, but the fact that is says "who believe," to me, means, "as far as I am aware, this is true." There are a lot of undeclared assumptions in that statement, and all of those are at the cost of the person signing that statement.

Alternatively, we see politicians walking back false statements or changing stance daily because the thing they said previously was what they believed based on the facts present at the time -- and they are never held to account.

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Re:IRS sends warning letters to more than 10k cryptocurrency... by JackFr on Friday July 26, 2019 @06:34PM (#20538948)

Former investment banker and President of the New York Fed, Timothy Geithner in his confirmation testimony to become Secretary of the Treasury [credibly, I would say] maintained that he had misunderstood the code and mistakenly underpaid his taxes by $34,000. If he can't understand the tax code, how can we.

At the end of the day, the IRS just wants their money.

On the other hand, IANAL, but a tax lawyer once said to me the only thing you go to jail for is hiding money. You can claim weird deductions, invent new depreciation schemes, misapply rules and all the IRS will do is say "No" and stick you with a bill. But if you're hiding income, it really upsets them.

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Re:IRS sends warning letters to more than 10k cryptocurrency... by lonelappde on Friday July 26, 2019 @06:37PM (#20538972)

The standard of law for civilians is much higher than for people in government, sadly.

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