Blockchain and the Law
Photo of Kathleen R Semanski

Kathleen R Semanski

Kathleen Semanski is an associate in the Tax Department. She counsels corporate, private equity, investment fund and REIT clients in connection with domestic and cross-border financings, debt restructurings, taxable and tax-free mergers and acquisitions (inbound and outbound), securities offerings, fund formations, joint ventures and other transactions.  Katie also advises on structuring for inbound and outbound investments, tax treaties, anti-deferral regimes, and issues related to tax withholding and information reporting.  Katie is a regular contributor to the Proskauer Tax Talks blog where she has written about developments in the taxation of cryptocurrency transactions, among other topics.

Katie earned her L.L.M. in taxation from NYU School of Law and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where she completed a specialization in business law & taxation and was a recipient of the Bruce I. Hochman Award for Excellence in the Study of Tax Law.  Katie currently serves on the Pro Bono Initiatives Committee at Proskauer and has worked on a number of immigration, voting rights, and criminal justice-related projects.

Subscribe to all posts by Kathleen R Semanski

Recent Legislative Proposals and IRS Guidance on the Taxation of Digital Assets

This blog post summarizes recent federal bills that have been introduced (but not yet passed), proposals by the Biden Administration, and guidance issued by the Internal Revenue Service with respect to the taxation of digital assets. Read the full post on our Tax Talks blog.… Continue Reading

Congress and the IRS Make Moves to Improve Taxpayer Compliance for Cryptocurrency Transactions

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, testifying before Congress in April 2021, estimated the gap between taxes owed and taxes collected in the United States to be close to $1 trillion.  While there is some debate as to how much lax reporting on cryptocurrency transactions contributes to this so-called “tax gap,” with a market capitalization hovering at … Continue Reading

IRS Officials Discuss Promotional Airdrops, Pre-2018 Crypto-for-Crypto Exchanges, and Other Issues Not Addressed in Recent Tax Guidance

In October of 2019, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service issued the first new guidance on the taxation of cryptocurrency transactions in over five years (the “Guidance”).  The Guidance comprising a revenue ruling (Rev. Rul. 2019-24) and answers to frequently asked questions on the taxation of cryptocurrency transactions published on the IRS’s website. This post discusses … Continue Reading

IRS Answers Some, but Not All, Questions in Long-awaited Cryptocurrency Guidance

The first official guidance on the taxation of cryptocurrency transactions in more than five years has been issued. The guidance includes both a Revenue Ruling (Rev. Rul. 2019-24, 2019-44 I.R.B. 1) and answers to Frequently Asked Questions on Virtual Currency Transactions (the “FAQs,” together with Revenue Ruling 2019-24, the “Guidance”) was issued on October 9, 2019 by … Continue Reading

U.S. Court Orders Coinbase to Share Information about Account Holders with the IRS but Limits to Transactions over $20,000

A U.S. federal district court judge on Tuesday, November 29 ordered Coinbase Inc., the largest cryptocurrency exchange and storage platform in the world, to provide information about certain of its account holders to the U.S. Internal Revenue Services (IRS).  Information pertaining to as many as 14,355 account holders and 8.9 million transactions could be covered … Continue Reading

Income, from Whatever Exchange, Mine, or Fork Derived: The Basics of U.S. Cryptocurrency Taxation

In this first of (we hope) many posts on the interesting and myriad tax issues arising in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, we focus on the very basic U.S. federal income tax consequences of cryptocurrency transactions.  The following is a very high-level discussion of the consequences generally applicable to U.S. individual holders of … Continue Reading
LexBlog

This website uses third party cookies, over which we have no control. To deactivate the use of third party advertising cookies, you should alter the settings in your browser.

OK