Today, Ohio reportedly becomes the first US state to allow taxes to be paid in the form of bitcoin. Although the program, which is spearheaded by Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, will not be available to individual taxpayers until a later time, businesses operating in Ohio are now able to register
Betting Big on Blockchain
By Brett Schwab on
Blockchain and sports gambling seem to be a natural fit. Sports gambling has been at the forefront of the news cycle since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal statute that banned states from authorizing sports gambling in Murphy v. NCAA. Since then, New Jersey, Delaware, Mississippi and West Virginia have passed laws allowing wagering on the results of certain sporting events. New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are quickly moving towards the legalization of sports gambling and a number of other states are expected to follow.
Blockchain has already proven to be a reliable partner for online casino gambling. In the past few years, a fruitful relationship between online casino gambling platforms and blockchain technologies has developed. Satoshi Dice, which first gained popularity in 2012, allows users to gamble their cryptocurrency through a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer dice prediction game. Virtue Poker, a ConsenSys-backed, decentralized poker platform, uses blockchain to ensure that casino operators (the “house”) cannot tamper with the integrity of a wager. And ZeroEdge uses smart contracts and blockchain to eliminate the “house” fee that is typically passed on to gamblers.
Thus, given the opening for sports gambling, it is easy to imagine a relationship forming between sports betting and blockchain technologies. Blockchain may allow casino operators and other entities to reduce transaction fees, speed up payment processing, increase gambler anonymity and flag problematic transactions. Some sports betting entities, such as daily fantasy sports behemoth FanDuel, have already begun exploring such opportunities.
However, even within states that have already legalized sports gambling, there are still a number of factors to consider for those aiming to utilize blockchain technologies within their sports betting platforms. Such considerations include, for example:
When Filing Taxes, Don’t Forget Virtual Currency Income
By Mani Kakkar & Divya Taneja on
In a March 23 news release, the IRS reminded taxpayers that income from virtual currency transactions must be reported on income tax returns, and that certain virtual currency transactions are taxable like any other property transactions. Taxpayers should note that despite the pseudo-anonymity of virtual currencies, the IRS has…
State-Level Legislation Anticipates Wide-Spread Business Use of Blockchain
By Brett Schwab on
On a daily basis, companies are announcing new developments on the adoption of blockchain in core business operations. However, many of these use cases present unique legal issues. In order to provide some clarity on some of these issues, and perhaps to offer a blockchain-friendly environment for the operation of blockchain companies, state legislatures around the country are rushing to adopt blockchain-friendly laws. Among the latest states to join are Florida and Nebraska.
U.S. Court Orders Coinbase to Share Information about Account Holders with the IRS but Limits to Transactions over $20,000
By Kathleen R Semanski on
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 in this order, according to estimates provided by Coinbase. The full order by Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California can be found here.
Income, from Whatever Exchange, Mine, or Fork Derived: The Basics of U.S. Cryptocurrency Taxation
By Kathleen R Semanski on
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 cryptocurrencies, and will not be applicable to all taxpayers depending on their particular situation.