I am not a tax specialist and in all likelihood this is how it would be taxed, but think of the logic (or maybe the lack of it in our 1040).
Say, I had 100 coins on MtGox (I didn't have any, just a theoretical number).
They are sending me back 25 and telling me that 75 were "lost" due to the business failure.
Let's say, i get the coins today, July 17.
OK, I got the "income" of 25X65 (roughly for simplification)=$1.625 mil
In addition, I also got a claim of a capital loss of 75X65=$4.875 mil. It is real, but I am not sure how to best document it in the return-a question to CPA.
I'm not a tax specialist either, and especially not on US taxes, but shouldn't the capital loss be based on what you paid for it back in the days? You never paid capital gains tax on those 75 Bitcoins, so I'd say the capital loss should be based on what you paid in (say) 2014.
Yeah the tax is levied on the amount used
It's capital gain tax
So it's the gain after removing invested capital
Taxes are not levied on stolen or lost coins but one in access and been sold.
So definitely there's no way it would be humane for the government to impose tax on a tax that has been written off since 2014.
Let me clear up some misinformation being spouted. First of all, kraken got user funds they will be distributing next week or the following week to individuals. Secondly, settlements aren’t taxed as capital gains. Selling to pay taxes on these coins is a thing that will happen. Many people will likely owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes based on their distribution regardless of what they do with the coins. The idea there won’t be selling is a fairytale.
Getting those coins back not necessarily means instant sell bc of taxes or am I wrong?
Not really
It still boils down to the country's policy
I mentioned some nations before whose government does not impose tax on equity
Like @philipma1957 said
USA next quarter payment is this September
So there's a likelihood that many of their citizens would sell some portion to pay up their tax.
but they are scum and may not say what they should which would be we will consider that you held them from 2014 to 2024 and as long as you keep them as BTC no tax is due.
My guess is they will say it is income of 650,000 - 6,500 = 635,000 which is 127,000 tax which will be due by 9/16/2024
Yeah I think they might stick with this but many would try to differ and expect a more lenient policy on them
But when has the government ever considered the masses.
I think there might be a dip but going below $50K might be quite hard to achieve.
Everybody are already expecting the sell
So the impact wouldn't be much
We can't really tell the policy that would be implemented by other countries but we sure Bitcoin is entering 6 digits number now till next year.