A retirement investment platform for small businesses has launched the Alt401(k) — enabling mainstream investors to include cryptocurrencies in their portfolios. ForUsAll has entered into a partnership with Coinbase Institutional to provide this service — and through this 401(k), employees can transfer up to 5% of their balances into a secured account where they can buy cryptocurrencies directly. Overall, nearly 40 different cryptocurrencies are supported, and employees get portfolio monitoring tools and the education required to make them feel comfortable with this asset class. According to ForUsAll, over 60% of professional investors now say crypto has a role to play …

Way back in 2014, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled that cryptocurrency is property in Notice 2014-21. That classification as property has some big tax consequences accentuated by wild price swings. Buying and selling crypto can trigger gain or loss and be taxable. Yes, buying something using crypto — a house, a car, a new suit — can trigger taxes. Even paying taxes in crypto can trigger taxes. If you owe $5,000 in taxes, you could pay the $5,000 in dollars. However, if you pay with $5,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC), as long as the crypto is worth …

The Australian branch of leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has increased the ability for users to accurately report tax liabilities amidst increased pressure from local tax authorities. Binance has partnered with cryptocurrency tax startup Koinly to assist users grappling with ever-increasing tax obligations down under. Binance users in Australia have been offered access to Koinly’s tax reporting solution through the integration. Koinly was founded in 2018 and supports over 600 exchanges and wallets, enabling users to sync their full crypto trading history with one central ATO-compliant platform. The move comes as the Australian Tax Office (ATO) increases its effort to collect …

The United States-based cryptocurrency tax software developer TaxBit is reportedly looking for new funding at a valuation of $1 billion or more, which would make it a unicorn startup. According to Bloomberg, people with knowledge of the matter said TaxBit is in talks to raise capital, but the terms have yet to be finalized. TaxBit declined to comment on the reports. TaxBit is a Salt Lake City, Utah-based startup founded in 2018 specializing in crypto-related tax processes for consumers and businesses. Developed by a group of CPAs, tax attorneys and software developers, the solution enables users to track the tax …

United States’ city of Jackson, Tennessee, continues exploring a potential dive into cryptocurrencies, now looking to accept Bitcoin (BTC) for property tax payments. Jackson Mayor Scott Conger announced late Thursday that the city’s blockchain task force had launched a study on potential methods to accept property tax payments in Bitcoin in the city. The blockchain group will also explore how to allow employees to dollar-cost average Bitcoin, or purchase smaller amounts of Bitcoin over regular time intervals. Dollar-cost averaging Bitcoin purchases are considered to be the best strategy for accumulating Bitcoin, multiple studies confirmed. Conger earlier took to Twitter to …

Russian expatriate and former professional sailboat racer Katie Ananina is the founder of Plan B Passport, a firm that brokers citizenship through investment schemes for tax-haven nations that don’t impose capital gains on crypto holdings to wealthy investors. According to a Sunday report from CNBC, Plan B brokers hundreds of passports for predominantly western clients each year. Customers select from one of seven jurisdictions: Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Vanuatu, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Portugal. “If the government starts affecting me, I will take all [my assets] into my hands and go elsewhere,” said Ananina, adding: “I …

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stretches the tax rules to fit its cryptocurrency agenda. At no time in tax history has pure creation been a taxable event. Yet, the IRS seeks to tax new tokens as income at the time they are created. This is an infringement on traditional tax principles and problematic for several reasons. In 2014, the IRS stated in an FAQ within IRS Notice 2014-21 that mining activities would result in taxable gross income. It is important to note that IRS notices are mere guidances and are not the law. The IRS concluded that mining …

About 2,000 years ago during its Han dynasty, China made peace with some of the nomadic people of Central Asia who continuously ransacked Silk Road traders for an easy payday. It did so in order to fully establish the Silk Road trade route, which stretched from China to Europe, and to secure a great source of wealth from trading in luxury goods. Now, as trade increasingly has shifted to the digital realm during the global COVID-19 pandemic, cyberattackers are taking advantage of organizations’ lax cybersecurity measures. They are using ransomware to lock these organizations’ data with encryption until a ransom …

As Kazakhstan becomes increasingly popular for cryptocurrency mining, the country’s president has signed a new law introducing an extra levy for crypto miners. President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev recently signed last a new law that imposes an additional tax fee for energy utilized by crypto miners operating in the country. The new fees will take effect starting in January 2022. According to local news agency Kursiv, the new law introduces an additional fee of 1 Kazakhstan tenge ($0.00233) per kilowatt-hour used by cryptocurrency miners. The additional tax levy is part of a series of legislative amendments to …

John McAfee, founder of the antivirus software company of the same name, is one step closer to facing prosecution in the United States for tax evasion. In a ruling released on Wednesday, the Spanish National Court approved the extradition of McAfee to the United States. His legal team will have the opportunity to appeal the court’s decision. In addition, Spain’s Council of Ministers will need to approve the extradition before it is final. The U.S. government had been seeking McAfee’s extradition for charges including failing to submit tax returns from 2014 to 2018 and allegedly not reporting income from “promoting …

According to local sources, the Indian Government’s 2% “equalisation levy” could be extended to crypto-assets purchased from off-shore exchanges. According to a June 22 report from Economic Times, analysts are inferring that existing law could require a 2% levy to be added onto the settlement price of crypto bought from overseas-based crypto exchanges operating in India’s market. The equalisation levy was first introduced by the government in 2016, imposing a 6% tariff on payments for e-commerce supply and services to non-resident companies without a permanent establishment in India. However, the equalisation levy was updated in mid-2020. Now dubbed the “Google …

Software antivirus pioneer John McAfee has told his 1 million Twitter followers that his entire crypto fortune is gone — although he concedes not everyone will believe he’s telling the truth. The McAfee antivirus founder has been behind bars in Spain since October 2020 — when he was arrested for tax evasion — but that hasn’t stopped him from posting on Twitter on a near-daily basis. The 75-year-old tweeted earlier today that “I have nothing. Yet, I regret nothing,” and noted that: “The US believes I have hidden crypto. I wish I did but it has dissolved through the many …