Posted on 05/08/2021 2:23:09 AM PDT by ransomnote
A federal court in the Northern District of California entered an order today authorizing the IRS to serve a John Doe summons on Payward Ventures Inc., and Subsidiaries d/b/a Kraken (Kraken) seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who conducted at least the equivalent of $20,000 in transactions in cryptocurrency during the years 2016 to 2020. The IRS is seeking the records of Americans who engaged in business with or through Kraken, a digital currency exchanger headquartered in San Francisco, California.
“Gathering the information in the summons approved today is an important step to ensure cryptocurrency owners are following the tax laws,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. Hubbert of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “Those who transact with cryptocurrency must meet their tax obligations like any other taxpayer.”
“There is no excuse for taxpayers continuing to fail to report the income earned and taxes due from virtual currency transactions,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “This John Doe summons is part of our effort to uncover those who are trying to skirt reporting and avoid paying their fair share.”
Cryptocurrency, as generally defined, is a digital representation of value. Because transactions in cryptocurrencies can be difficult to trace and have an inherently pseudoanonymous aspect, taxpayers may be using them to hide taxable income from the IRS. On April 1, 2021, a federal court in the District of Massachusetts granted an order authorizing the IRS to serve a similar John Doe summons on Circle, a digital currency exchange headquartered in Boston.
Today’s order from the Northern District of California grants the IRS permission to serve what is known as a “John Doe” summons on Kraken. The United States’ petition does not allege that Kraken has engaged in any wrongdoing in connection with its digital currency exchange business. Rather, according to the court’s order, the summons seeks information related to the IRS’s “investigation of an ascertainable group or class of persons” that the IRS has reasonable basis to believe “may have failed to comply with internal revenue laws.” According to the copy of the summons filed with the petition, the IRS directed Kraken to produce records identifying the U.S. taxpayers described above, along with other documents relating to their cryptocurrency transactions.
The IRS has issued guidance regarding the tax consequences on the use of virtual currencies in IRS Notice 2014-21,which provides that virtual currencies that can be converted into traditional currency are property for tax purposes, and a taxpayer can have a gain or loss on the sale or exchange of a virtual currency, depending on the taxpayer’s cost to purchase the virtual currency (that is, the taxpayer’s tax basis).
“ that the IRS has reasonable basis to believe
Yes, I noticed the “reasonable basis” the FBI had when they went to Alaska looking forward pelosi’s laptop.
People will but still have the issue of reporting any dollars when they want to use the money in the U.S. (overseas purchases kept overseas are harder for the IRS to identify).
The smarter and more capable individuals will follows those that set up overseas corporations. The really smart ones will set up scam foundations like the Clinton Foundation or the Gates Foundations and have overseas "donations" to their foundations.
The IRS is not going after these people for taxes, they're going after these people because the Globalists don't welcome cryptocurrency users to the game that these Globalists have been running for decades.
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NO, not according to the Constitution.
The exception (which itself is not constitutional) swallows the (constitutional) rule.
Whatever some court decision(s) have said, the absurdity of such rulings would certainly have been apparent to our Founders, had they ever imagined them in their worst nightmares.
But alas, some things (and court rulings) are so outlandish that nobody can possibly forsee them happening anywhere (other than a communist or nazi dictatorship, or perhaps in a lunatic asylum — and our Founders intended none of these for our national republic).
So far as I can recall on quick memory, the Supreme Court has watered down, undermined, or effectively destroyed much of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th amendments in our Bill of Rights. Judgement calls in some cases, in others pure authoritarian diktat. The result is one constitutional law professor we know quit teaching the subject because she grew weary of always having to explain to students how the court has destoryed or cancelled or undermined or just plain weakened so many of our liberties, even though they were fought for in blood and still exist on paper (anyway).
We are as close to a dictatorship as is possible, and it will only take a few EO’s or Acts of Congress to fully (and probably permanently) nail that coffin shut on our country.
You'd be surprised how much of "your" information you voluntarily give away to others on a regular basis.
good argument. i would only add that adhesion contracts are invalid (per contract law and.. yes, COURT rulings, ha!)
all bandits are interested in all sources of wealth.
for govts, they just have to find a way to justify taking some of it
the only access the US govt has to any wealth is rooted in the 16th Amendment... which is basically written as if by a drunken sailor looking to grab any and all they can find.
the fact that it completely jumped around the states and went directly to the individual is irrelevant to the drunken sailor. prior the the 16th, the fed received its money from the states... giving them a level of power to negotiate with the feds. going directly to the citizen negates that ability.
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