IRS Demands Identities of All Coinbase Traders

I just ususally lurk but I felt this needed to be posted

coinbase is easy and simple, but yet it lacks Opsec on both parts, even if you tumble as we see so if you need to ask am I buying to much bitcoin from coinbase/circle chances are, you need a break or use local bitcoins or some other type of exchange. This is the third time of someone getting into shit using a bitcoin exchange like coinbase. The first is the guy that bought to much bitcoin and got drug charges.

THE IRS IS NOW WATCHING, SO TRY TO BE FRESH AS HELL

IRS deal with taxes we all know, but they submit a lot of information to DEA and FBI when they believe drugs or other criminal activities are the source of income for the individual.

Look at al capone? taxes are what brought him down.

USE LOCAL BITCOINS or Maybe just buy small amounts from coinbase but buying 2000 usd a week and your not working can throw a lot of flags now.

Circle will follow suit also if they have not already, circle is owned by huge wall street investors, along with banks.

Stay safe and cool everyone

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/irs-demands-identities-of-all-coinbase-traders-over-two-year-period

In bitcoin-related investigations, authorities will often follow the digital trail of an illegal transaction or suspicious user back to a specific account at a bitcoin trading company. From here, investigators will likely subpoena the company for records about that particular user, so they can then properly identify the person suspected of a crime.

The Internal Revenue Service, however, has taken a different approach. Instead of asking for data relating to specific individuals suspected of a crime, it has demanded bitcoin trading site Coinbase to provide the identities of all of the firm's customers who made transactions over a three year period, because there is a chance they are avoiding paying taxes on their bitcoin reserves. Coinbase has millions of customers.

According to court filings, which were first flagged by financial blogger Zerohedge on Twitter, the IRS has launched an investigation to determine the correct amount of tax that those who use virtual currencies such as bitcoin are obligated to pay. But according to the documents, the IRS is asking for the identities of any Coinbase customer who transferred crypto-currency with the service between 2013 and 2015. (Although the site does allow the trade of alternative virtual currency Ethereum, it was not introduced until 2016, so it is outside the scope of this IRS request.)



A section from the memorandum, laying out what data the IRS is demanding, and its justification for its release.
"The John Does whose identities are sought by the summons are United States persons who, at any time during the period January 1, 2013, through December 31, 2015, conducted transactions in a convertible virtual currency," reads a memorandum written by Department of Justice attorneys and filed on Thursday, November 17.

*

When signing up to Coinbase, users are sometimes required to provide identification documents.

"There is a reasonable basis for believing these US taxpayers failed to comply with internal revenue laws," the document continues, pointing to several cases in which individuals did hide taxable income in virtual currencies.

In 2014, the IRS stated that virtual currencies which can be converted into fiat currency are property for tax purposes. This means, among other things, that wages paid to employees using bitcoin are taxable to the employee, and are subject to federal income tax.

However, the documents acknowledge that not all Coinbase customers may have broken any internal revenue laws.

"The taxpayers being investigated have not been or may not be complying with US internal revenue laws requiring the reporting of taxable income from virtual-currency transactions," a document reads.

The IRS further justifies its request by claiming it is targeted toward a specific group of people; namely, US taxpayers who have conducted transactions with virtual currency.

Coinbase has some 4.8 million users and 10.6 million wallets, according to the site's own figures. The court documents note that, as of December 2015, "Coinbase was the fourth largest exchanger globally of bitcoin into U.S. dollars and the largest exchanger in the U.S. of bitcoin into U.S. dollars."

Coinbase did not immediately respond to Motherboard's request for comment. Posting from a verified Reddit account, a representative of the company said: "We take user privacy very seriously and will work to protect the privacy of our users in broad information requests. We are taking a very careful look at this petition and the scope of the government's authority as it relates to this request."

The IRS acknowledged, but did not immediately respond, to a request for comment.

This story has been updated to reflect that it's closer to a three year period than two year period (from January 2013 until December 2015).


Comments


[27 Points] weedandsyrup:

Fuck me.


[13 Points] DextroShade:

Can't someone setup an exchange in Switzerland or Russia that can wipe their asses with these "requests"?


[8 Points] ScoopDat:

Obligation to pay tax on something not considered currency? Okay, wierdo IRS, where were you when bitcoin came out and your friends who dismissed it's existence as nonsense. Now you want to be heroes of some crusade thought up from your psychotic imaginations?

The heck out of here, buncha butthurts with nothing better to do tbh. How about you go investigating your little Wall Street/corporate friends for tax evasion... ugly hypocrites.

The audacity of them to publicly shame themselves like this is embarrassing, can you possibly over-act and make yourselves look like propaganda tools anymore than you already have? Then again with the cattle of a population you seem to monitor, I can see how stupidity like this goes by unnoticed by the grass-grazing public.


[8 Points] None:

Long live LBC


[7 Points] None:

Dealers shouldn't be leaving a paper trail anyway.

Me, personally? I gambled all my BTC away. I forget which site.


[3 Points] None:

[deleted]


[2 Points] shooterxanax:

NOT GOOD NOT GOOD


[2 Points] jarxlots:

Look at al capone? taxes are what brought him down.

Because nothing else stuck. They had to lie about what he had done in order to claim that he hadn't paid enough in taxes.

Kangaroos.

In 2014, the IRS stated that virtual currencies which can be converted into fiat currency are property for tax purposes

Slippery slope. How long before the greedy IRS drops the "virtual currencies" or extends the scope of the idea to include the potential for conversion to a fiat currency. I'm talking about the skills you maintain, proven by your transcripts, your certifications, etc. How long before you have to pay taxes on your ability to circumvent the government by developing cryptographic technologies?

What other angle would they take to effectively ban encryption? Don't ban it outright... follow the South Korean model (regarding games.) Just tax the hell out of it, making it wholly illegal for an individual to even provide a software product to the community, even for free.

I fear this move by the IRS, is merely the "opening volley" in a much darker financial future for individuals.


[1 Points] None:

Oh wow


[1 Points] maojoemama:

Everyone that used their identities to set up accounts should have expected this already. What a shame. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am trying to understand the current tax law on bitcoins at the federal level. As I understand it you aren't taxed on purchasing them, but there is a capital gains tax on the amount you profited when you make a transaction (. Could you maintain that you only bought bitcoins and moved them to different addresses but never exchanged them, therefore owing no tax? Or would you have to say that you exchanged the coins immediately and when it hit the first bitcoin address it was no longer in your possession? Then you would pay tax on the increase made from the moment you buy the coins to moving to the next bitcoin wallet. That amount of time being small, the capital gains tax should be low, but you have to pay for every transaction you made. But how are you able to even verify you control any of the wallets that the exchange is sending your coins to? If you can't claim ownership of those wallets then you should only owe tax on the transaction when you send your coins from the exchange to the first wallet. Can anyone else that understands the tax law on this confirm?


[1 Points] xaninmy4:

What does this mean for someone that just uses coinbase to buy btc then tumble


[1 Points] ArchChillin:

zcash could be a good BTC alternative for privacy and anonymity purposes...

http://www.coindesk.com/defending-zcash-blockchain-art-security-theater/


[1 Points] dnm-fatso9:

fuck...quick! to the tumblers!


[1 Points] captblackbeard1401:

Nice try NSA


[1 Points] hijisk_11:

What does this truly mean for coinbase though? Do I pull my money out? Would it still be fine to still use coinbase? I just started using it 2 weeks ago and don't want it to just shut down out of nowhere.


[1 Points] None:

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