Do people who sell bitcoin have to pay cap gains tax on the gains?

Answer is yes. You would have capital gains or losses on conversion and sale of British Pounds to US Dollars, or vice versa. No different on BitCoin.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Answer is yes. You would have capital gains or losses on conversion and sale of British Pounds to US Dollars, or vice versa. No different on BitCoin.

You would think the pimply faced teens, millennials, and lower middle classes would understand, but it's doubtful since they've never owned stocks before

IN bOsch Dun wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Answer is yes. You would have capital gains or losses on conversion and sale of British Pounds to US Dollars, or vice versa. No different on BitCoin.

You would think the pimply faced teens, millennials, and lower middle classes would understand, but it's doubtful since they've never owned stocks before

FX gains/losses aren't that simple, so check again for that example. I think short-term bitcoin gains would be taxed as ordinary income (up to 39.6%).

kartelite wrote:

IN bOsch Dun wrote:

You would think the pimply faced teens, millennials, and lower middle classes would understand, but it's doubtful since they've never owned stocks before

FX gains/losses aren't that simple, so check again for that example. I think short-term bitcoin gains would be taxed as ordinary income (up to 39.6%).

WOW! So even worse than I thought!!! Thanks

Instead of 15% capital gains tax, they owe more like 20-39.6%!!!

I don't care

Since 2014 the IRS has designated Bitcoin as "property." So it's similar to the sale of a house. Upon reconversion of BTC to fiat ($USD) it's subject to capital gains tax. So, if you bought at $1,000 at the beginning of 2017 (which was approx the price) and you sell here at the end of 2017 for $13,000 (the approx price), you have a $12,000 appreciation that's subject to that tax.

And there are no exchanges I'm aware of that send out forms to those who liquidate / convert their BTC. You're expected to report this yourself. That's the law.

Of course, I know people who choose not to follow that course. (They're more anti-govt / libertarian and see BTC as a currency, not some kind of property.) If you buy your bitcoin on a regulated exchange (Coinbase, Gemini, Bittrex, Kraken, etc) and then get it off the exchange by sending it to a private wallet, there are ways to sell it that don't require sending it back to the exchange and converting it back to $USD. (Once it goes back to the exchange and is sold for $USD, that event can be tracked, and that event is linked to your bank account.) Localbitcoins is the most popular non-exchange on which to sell, but it's not the only site.

But most people I know simply hold, and many hope that there will be ways to spend bitcoin without reconverting it. Plus, a bill has been introduced to Congress proposing that people be allowed to spend $600 worth of BTC p/day for pleasure. (The amount would go up by $50 p/yr.). So if there are ways to spend it, you could spend $18K p/mo without any tax penalty.

The govt of Japan has declared it a legal currency, right alongside the Yen. I severely doubt the US will ever do that, but we do need to clean up how it's viewed. Our judicial system, in several cases, has ruled it to be a currency. The SEC treats it like a commodity. And the IRS sees it as property. In fact, this newer version of money is all three.

And by the way, bitcoin isn't going "down the tubes." It's up almost 14x what it was at the beginning of the year, and it's currently 3.25x what it was only 3 months ago. It only sucks if you bought in at $18-19K early in Dec.

These 30% drops in value are de rigeur for cryptocurrencies. These assets are and will remain volatile until the market matures. But there's a difference between volatility and bubbles.

Bet on the tech, not the price. And whatever the current limitations of the tech are, they're solvable.

some one has to pay for the us occupation of historic islamic lands.

Keep telling yourself that there is something of value there. You are but one of many fools. Happens in every bubble. Just don’t take others saps with you. Not fair to share your naïveté.

Simple investor, oh I mean runner:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-24/amid-crypto-chaos-morgan-stanley-warns-true-value-bitcoin-could-be-zero

I am actually trying to invest some money intro bitcoin via cloud mining and I have to say that anything I had to pay for was my contract and some small fee. Besides that, this month I used a hashflare code for April that made my contract even cheaper. Still didn't try to sell any of my currency so I am not quite sure about the taxes.

Alot of people don't report eBay nor amazon profits.