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

Wed Nov 28 03:54:19 UTC 2018

ROFL

From: Ipg-smz [mailto:ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org] On Behalf Of Ken Hess
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2018 5:27 PM
To: ipg-smz at netpress.org
Subject: Re: [Ipg-smz] Ohio accepts bitcoin to pay taxes (Techcrunch)

Can I pay in "scrap" gold? Don't you love those jewelry places that tell you to bring in your scrap gold? Seriously. Scrap gold.

That's like spare change.

"Hello, sir, how are you? Do you have any spare change?" 

"No, but I do have some scrap gold."

Oy.

Thanks,

Ken

Kenneth Hess
(918) 919-0411
Twitter: @kenhess

Skype: kenneth_hess

kenhess.com <http://www.kenhess.com/>  - frugalnetworker.com <http://frugalnetworker.com/> 

Filmmaker - Podcaster - Reviewer - System Administrator - Writer

On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 3:49 PM Sharon Fisher <slfisher at gmail.com> wrote:

Some states allow you to pay in gold. 

On Tue, Nov 27, 2018, 11:18 AM Tom Henderson <thenderson at extremelabs.com> wrote:

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> 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.

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