Here are the latest items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on Bitcoin taxes.
Precious Metals:
Mike Maloney’s Update On the Gold/Silver Ratio
Stocks:
At Reuters: Dow, S&P snap winning streak as Walmart weighs
Taxes (Bitcoin Taxes):
SurvivalBlog reader Janet X. sent us a scary little snippet from Martin W. Armstrong: Cryptocurrency Maybe Become a Tax Nightmare. JWR’s Comments: While there could indeed be accurate tax tracking of Bitcoin purchases (or sales) through exchanges, what about Bitcoin fractions that are gifts, trades, or personally mined? Can you imagine what a tax audit would be like for someone who trades, gifts, or sells such BTC at a later date? Imagine this series of questions: “What was the US Dollar value when you mined it?” “And what was the US Dollar value on the day that you received it?” “And what was the US Dollar value on the day that you spent or traded it?” Yikes!
With Bitcoin prices all over map in a wild rollercoaster ride for the past three years, who is to say what this crypto’s relative Dollar value was at those precise “taxable event” days or hours? This would be especially confusing for Bitcoin mining, which is often done very gradually. When is the taxable event Dollar-value benchmark for miners?
Consider that from 2014 to 2017 the Dollar value of a Bitcoin ranged from $4 to as high as $20,000. Then In January 2018 it was back down to $6,000. Now (as of February 20th, 2018) it is back up over $10,800. Those tax calculations might be almost impossible to make accurately!
