A company that allows consumers to invest in Bitcoin on a tax-free basis says it has seen demand surge in recent months. iTrustCapital allows Americans to gain exposure to the world’s biggest cryptocurrency through a self-directed individual retirement account, otherwise known as an IRA. These vehicles allow owners to get involved in a diverse array of alternative investments, such as digital assets, precious metals and real estate. According to the trading platform, increasing numbers of investors have been moving their current retirement accounts out of traditional financial institutions that usually only offer stocks and bonds. Interest in cryptocurrencies has been …

New Zealand businesses must now submit information on their clients' digit asset usage to the country's tax regulator, the Inland Revenue Department, or IRD. The governing body said it wants to get a better grasp on the crypto scene in the country and determine an applicable tax framework for the asset class, according to a statement reported by Radio New Zealand, or RNZ. In addition to specifics around crypto usage, the IRD will also request associated client information, RNZ wrote. The IRD is not the only government body dialing in on digital asset taxation. The IRS, the U.S.' tax authority, …

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments worldwide to focus on bringing blockchain technology to their financial services, along with the needed regulatory upgrades to keep the burgeoning fintech industry clean. Related: Not like before: Digital currencies debut amid COVID-19 For example, on Sep. 10, Switzerland — a global center for the wealth management industry, housing around $2 trillion or 27% of global offshore wealth — passed a reformed Blockchain Act that includes a new set of laws and regulations to support the growth of blockchain and decentralized finance companies in the country. Related: Why Switzerland is becoming a “crypto nation” …

The United States Internal Revenue Service has better ways to spend taxpayer dollars than offering bounties to break Monero’s (XMR) privacy, a Monero working group says. After the IRS announced it is offering up to $625,000 to anyone who can break Monero, a major Monero-focused workgroup expressed their take on the matter. A spokesperson for Monero Outreach — an independent workgroup focused on XMR awareness and education — told Cointelegraph that the IRS should learn how Monero actually works instead. Monero Outreach’s representative emphasized that the crypto’s features in fact provide users with a certain level of transparency, stating: “$625,000 …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note One of the most persistent myths about Bitcoin is its supposed anonymity. More properly termed pseudonymity, BTC wallets are permanently tied to their public keys. Most of you know that. But it took government investigators years of trying to corral Bitcoin transactions on dark web marketplaces like the Silk Road to figure that out. Now, however, blockchain analysis is a growing industry, catering to a range of clients including many of the most shadowy of government agencies. This was …

The United States Internal Revenue Service has offered a bounty of up to $625,000 to anyone who can break purportedly untraceable privacy coins such as Monero (XMR) as well as trace transactions on Bitcoin’s (BTC) Lightning Network. The official proposal, published last week, says the IRS will accept submissions in the form of working prototypes until Sept. 16. If accepted, applicants will receive an initial payment of $500,000. This grant will allow applicants to develop their prototype into a working concept over the next eight months. Once the pilot test is completed and approved by the government, a further $125,000 …

Financial institutions worldwide have reported 134,500 suspicious transactions concerning virtual currencies in the past two years — but that’s just the tip of the iceberg according to a report published by blockchain forensics firm CipherTrace. The report says the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has seen a major increase in suspicious transaction reports from institutions since publishing its May 2019 Advisory on Illicit Activity Involving Convertible Virtual Currency (CVC). Despite this, CipherTrace asserts that many financial institutions have developed inadequate “home-grown” systems for identifying cryptocurrency-related accounts and transactions, that simply use lists of the names of crypto exchanges and virtual …

On Sept. 8, the IRS’s criminal investigation department signed a $249,900 contract with a blockchain analytics firm to expand its crypto tracing tools. The contract provides limited information, but it follows an overarching trend of the IRS stepping up its game when it comes to crypto. The firm behind the contract, Blockchain Analytics and Tax Software, is a relative unknown compared to familiar faces in analytics like Chainalysis. The firm’s only prior government contract was for only $9,800 with the U.S. Treasury for serving as an expert witness. Just last week the IRS put out a request for submissions for …

A recent memorandum from the U.S.' tax authority, the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, attempted to clarify taxation rules around receiving crypto assets as payment. "Is convertible virtual currency received by an individual for performing a microtask through a crowdsourcing or similar platform taxable income?" said a document released on Aug. 28, adding: "Yes, a taxpayer who receives convertible virtual currency in exchange for performing a microtask through a crowdsourcing platform has received consideration in exchange for performing a service, and the convertible virtual currency received is taxable as ordinary income." Crowdsourcing — calling on a number of participants to …

The nation of Qatar is a World Bank “high-income economy,” backed by the world's third-largest natural gas and oil reserves. It has the third-highest GDP per capita in the world (by purchasing power parity), with very high human development. Similar to other Gulf Cooperation Council states — which also include the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain — Qatar has had to deal with the decline in global oil and gas prices after they first collapsed in 2014, and the situation has been made even more difficult by a Saudi-led embargo of the nation that started in …

On Aug. 19, the IRS released drafts of its income tax forms for 2020, which will ask every American filing income for the year whether or not they used crypto. Early into its very first page, the latest 1040 form asks: “At any time during 2020, did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?” Chandan Lodha, founder of crypto tax software firm Cointracker, told Cointelegraph: “The cryptocurrency question is now front and center on the IRS Form 1040 for next year. Pretty clearly shows that the IRS is taking cryptocurrency taxes even …

While being a relatively young correction to energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) network validation, proof-of-stake has existed in theory since 2012. However, rising market cap of PoS tokens like Cardano (ADA) and Tezos (XTZ) over the past two years and Ethereum’s much-hyped but much-delayed shift from PoW to PoS have brought the subject to the forefront. Alongside an overall increase in regulatory attention on crypto generally, PoS protocols are an area of much debate. One question highlighted by a recent letter from several Congresspeople to the IRS is taxes. Specifically, the letter voiced worries about overtaxing staking rewards. Unfortunately, the IRS is …