[Ipg-smz] Ohio accepts bitcoin to pay taxes (Techcrunch)

[Tom Henderson]

BTC, in and of themselves, are not "taxable events". If you minted them, 
you have a basis and may have a capital gain in their manufacture.

If you bought high and sold higher, there's a taxable gain. If you 
bought high and sold low, you have a loss.

If you bought BTC at $5K and sold that segment for $5K, there is no loss 
or gain, and there is no theory of tax that applies, except those 
surrounding intangible property taxes, which are usually transient 
(taxed once per annum or period).

So, paying in BTC for taxes due doesn't create another taxable event, 
e.g. no double taxation.

Is Ohio smart or stupid for taking BTC? Smart. Three reasons: 1) it outs 
BTC holders who may or may not have an unreported possible gain; 2) 
allows those that bought high, which includes many people, a way of 
paying potentially without an offsetting loss, which would lower Ohio's 
capital gain income; and 3) getting paid today offsets inflation. All 
taxing authorities want to offset inflation, which they can't control.

Tom


On 11/27/18 6:12 AM, Liam Kelly wrote:
> The second degree of irony (of which I'm still parsing through) is 
> that in the US all Bitcoin transactions are taxable events.
>
> So does that mean that paying taxes in BTC would also engender yet 
> another taxable event?
>
> Outside of the infinite feedback loop of paying your crypto taxes, I 
> think Ohio has done this more in regards of optimism/adoption 
> ("bullish") and hoping to attract small businesses.
>
> The Midwest, in general, indeed seems pretty curious to attract crypto 
> talent. There are more than a few politicians from the region 
> announcing their crypto support.
>
> Final note: Bitcoin will eventually get absorbed by the state or die. 
> I feel pretty confident about that despite holding a bit of this magic 
> Internet money...
>
> Tom Geller <tom at tomgeller.com <mailto:tom at tomgeller.com>> schrieb am 
> Di. 27. Nov. 2018 um 18:25:
>
>     This strikes me as strange because of something taught to me in an
>     economics class 15 years ago: Taxes are one of the only
>     pinchpoints where government can insist on payment in dollars.
>
>     Even if the rest of society starts trading in chicken feet, by
>     insisting on dollars the government ensures that they continue to
>     have value. (No dollars? We're putting you in jail.) When the
>     Hungarian pengő bills became near-worthless in 1945, what replaced
>     them? Tax certificates ("adópengő").
>
>     Perhaps I was mistaught, or that economic model is no longer
>     valid. Or perhaps the state is sticking it to the federal
>     government. (In the latter case, I'd expect some lawsuits and
>     public statements.) In either case, I don't get it.
>
>     ---
>     Tom Geller  *  Writer & Video/journalist  * http://tomgeller.com
>            Rotterdam, The Netherlands, +31 (0)6 87071468
>                 Oberlin, Ohio  *  +1-415-317-1805
>
>
>
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>
-- 
Tom Henderson
ExtremeLabs, Inc.
+1 317 250 4646
Twitter: @extremelabs
Skype: extremelabsinc

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