美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 可能隨時批准現貨比特幣 (BTC) 交易所交易基金 (ETF)。 當它發生時，許多人相信一切都會改變。
但美國準備好迎接首次加密貨幣投資者的衝擊了嗎？ 關於稅務合規性，也許不是。
加密貨幣投資者必須為其利潤納稅，就像投資者出售股票、債券和房地產一樣。 這已經很清楚了。 但其中的原因仍懸而未決。
加密貨幣遊說團體Coin Center 的執行長Jerry Brito 在1 月2 日的一篇部落格文章中寫道，就目前的情況來看，「幾乎不可能遵守」加密貨幣稅務報告義務，特別是考慮到幾年前新增的一項規定：美國基礎設施投資和就業法案的一部分。
該條款於 2024 年 1 月 1 日生效，修訂了美國稅法，“要求任何在交易或業務過程中收到 10,000 美元或以上加密貨幣的人向 IRS [美國國稅局] 報告] 關於那筆交易，”布里托指出。
布里托問道，這可能看起來無害，但如果比特幣礦工獲得超過10,000 美元的區塊獎勵，那麼“他們需要報告誰的姓名、地址和社會安全號碼”，正如現在法律所要求的那樣。
或者說您“參與了鏈上去中心化的加密貨幣交換，因此您收到了 10,000 美元的加密貨幣，您向誰報告？” 如何確定加密貨幣的數量是否等於 10,000 美元？
布里托寫道：“法律對此事沒有任何規定，國稅局也沒有發布任何指導來回答這些問題和其他問題。”
真的這麼繁重嗎？
但新要求真的那麼模糊嗎？ 它們是否會像一些人警告的那樣抑制潛在投資者並阻礙加密貨幣在美國的採用？ 也許美國法律和規則制定者應該遵循其他稅收框架，以期加密貨幣成為主流——例如瑞士、英國或新加坡的稅收框架。
當被問及大多數投資者是否確實很難遵守有關加密貨幣的現行美國稅法時，加州大學爾灣法學院法學教授兼研究生稅務計畫學術主任 Omri Marian 不同意 Brito 的描述。
「該法律僅適用於『商業貿易』背景下超過 10,000 美元的付款，這是一個藝術術語，」瑪麗安告訴 Cointelegraph。
「例如，如果我是汽車經銷商，我以 10,000 美元現金出售一輛汽車，我必須向 IRS 舉報買家。 我可以，因為我知道買家是誰。 該法律對出售商品和服務以換取加密貨幣也適用同樣的要求。”
If car dealers — or any other business owners — can comply in the cash sale context, then so can crypto buyers and sellers. “The medium of exchange makes no difference,” Marian says.
But what about Bitcoin miners, one of the specific examples cited by Brito? “In the absolute majority cases, miners will not be considered to be engaged in a ‘trade or business’ under current law,” said Marian, which means the requirement will not apply to them.
It’s also “extremely unlikely” that a Bitcoin miner will receive $10,000 or more from a single person whose transactions that miner validated, “so again, the law is not applicable,” he added.
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Still, the IRS has yet to publish any guidance in this area, which doesn’t help.
“It’s a bit too early to conclude that it’s virtually impossible to comply,” Shehan Chandrasekera, head of tax strategy at CoinTracker, told Cointelegraph. However, it will certainly be a challenge in the short term.
Even though the law went into effect on Jan. 1, the IRS has yet to issue any regulations or update its Form 8300 to report digital assets, noted Chandrasekera, adding:
“Until these regs are out, we can only speculate what exactly will need to be reported for digital assets.”
Only a minority will be impacted
Nathan Goldman, associate professor at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management, told Cointelegraph that the new rule will not affect the majority of crypto traders simply because most transactions will not meet the $10,000 threshold.
However, investors who trade large amounts of crypto will likely be impacted by the seemingly vague provision.
For example: “If you sell somebody an entire Bitcoin, you will be over the $10,000 limit, and you will have to report the transaction to the IRS. If this is a routine transaction to somebody you know, it will still be somewhat obtrusive” because you need to get their name, address, social security number, among other things. “However, you can comply with the rule.”
“On the contrary, if this is to an unknown party, a crypto exchange company, or something else of that magnitude, it is unclear how this transaction can be documented.”
Again, there is no IRS guidance here, and it could be particularly worrisome for those who have already had a $10,000 transaction in 2024, especially in light of the 15-day period before the non-reporting of the transaction becomes a felony, Goldman added.
What about DeFi transactions?
Still, doesn’t the unique decentralized nature of crypto render some reporting problematic? Take the decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions, which Brito cited above.
“At the moment, it is literally not possible to comply with the reporting requirement,” Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO at the DeFi Education Fund, told Cointelegraph. What’s needed instead for the 60 million Americans who own digital assets today are “fit-for-purpose tax provisions” that basically regard crypto as a different sort of case.
Treating crypto as a special case with tailored rules would “improve tax compliance overall and provide the clarity necessary to foster domestic innovation,” continues Miller. There are even places where this approach is already being taken, he added:
“The United Kingdom is a good example of a model that the U.S. might follow, especially when it comes to the taxation of DeFi transactions.”
In 2023, the U.K. actually “issued a call for responses on how best to tax DeFi transactions,” Miller recalled, a recognition that the U.K. understood the novelty of the new technology and the fact that “a new framework that is tailored to digital asset transactions is needed.”
Others, however, take the view that crypto is more similar to than different from other financial transactions and, therefore, doesn’t need special legislation or rules.
“In the context of DeFi, if you choose to sell something to someone for $10,000 in crypto without knowing who this person is, so you can’t report that person, then you made a conscious choice to break the law. Similarly, if I choose to make an anonymous sale in cash to someone, I also break the law,” said Marian, adding:
“The bottom line is that in almost all cases, people can comply because they can, in fact, identify the buyer or because the reporting requirement doesn’t apply to them.”
Still, let’s assume for the sake of argument that crypto is a special case and deserves its own particular tax framework. What sort of changes would Congress then need to make?
“Congress should consider adding a de minimis exemption — like the ones on foreign currency transactions — to limit the small and innocuous reporting requirements that could surround cryptocurrency,” said Goldman. This would allow taxpayers to avoid having to incur a tax liability every time they make crypto transactions.
Is crypto adoption at risk?
If Congress does nothing, could that impact crypto adoption in the United States? “I believe it would,” answered Goldman. “However, I also believe that is not a bad thing at this time.”
Congress has been very careful about imposing too many — or too few — restrictions on cryptocurrency, he further explained. In some ways, the U.S., through its inaction, is letting crypto chart its own path.
While that might hinder short-term adoption, it shouldn’t prove an obstacle to widespread acceptance in the longer term, he suggested.
瑪麗安則認為國會的不作為不會損害美國加密貨幣的採用。 「迄今為止，加密貨幣在美國幾乎沒有正式的稅收指導，並且基本上是在現有的稅收框架下運作的。[...]。 然而，『奇蹟般地』加密貨幣在美國仍在成長，而且自推出以來一直如此，」他說。
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至少就瑪麗安所知，也沒有任何經驗證據顯示市場走勢與美國對加密貨幣的稅收指引有關。 “如果人們沒有 在 美國更廣泛地採用加密貨幣，這與稅收[待遇]無關。”
考慮到世界上正在發生的所有其他事情，人們現在可能不應該指望國會在加密貨幣方面採取行動。 假設目前情況如此，至少在短期內，散戶投資者應該了解的關於 2024 年加密貨幣稅務報告的最重要的事情是什麼？
高盛表示：“投資者需要仔細記錄他們的交易。” 「隨著美國國稅局對加密貨幣的關注不斷增加，納稅人支持他們的交易將變得勢在必行。 我預計美國國稅局將越來越多地向這一領域施加壓力，投資者在接受審計時必須支持他們的交易。”
