Quote from: sunnankar on February 09, 2012, 03:51:51 AM

For those subject to US taxes CA attorney Bill Rounds has written a 34 page guide on BitCoins and Taxes with about 60 legal footnotes that is an objective analysis of how to treat bitcoins for US tax purposes. Bottom line is bitcoins do not fit nicely and neatly in any current legal box.

So I bought it and read it. My assessment is that he goes more into breadth than depth. Unlike the other documents I read, he argues that it is unclear how to classify Bitcoin for tax purposes. Which might be a reasonable point, because classification for regulatory vs. tax purposes might well be different. Instead, he lists all the approaches he considers plausible (and one that he considers implausible), describes what their consequences are and gives assorted tips on implementing them. It's more a practical guide than a theoretical discourse. Both of these points (breadth instead of depth, practical instead of theoretical) are valid so it can't be said it's a disadvantage. He covers some areas which I didn't think about before at all or insufficiently, for example gifts or deductibility of losses.

Altogether it's well researched. I only have minor auxiliary objections: it's US-centric, the order with Bitcoins didn't work correctly (and they did not respond to my complaints), and the formatting of the amazon kindle edition is crap. It provides a solid base for people interested in Bitcoin and therefore I recommend it.