He also mentioned that the founders/team members who initially would be rewarded with part of a newly launched token would have to pay taxes for receiving them. Which kind of make sense. However, should we pay any taxes if we wouldn’t cash out all those tokens to FIAT currency? I’m not really sure.
I paid taxes for last year on the Steem I earned. I will do so again this year as well. I figure before it is over, here in the US at least, they will devastate many projects. The ones left standing will be targeted for as much tax revenue as they can squeeze.
As for the SE tokens, I would be wary with them. I keep seeing people say they are worth this or that, yet house odds are NONE of them will ever be listed on mainstream exchanges of any velocity. Yet, I can see the IRS using the claims of worth to demand payment for tokens that will be hard to impossible to sell.
Should we consider this token to be security at this stage? Or should we not, since we would be receiving STEEM token, which is not a currency in the name of the law.
Where this gets dicey imo, is with the SBD. I have seen it referred to by many as Steem currency with the effort to peg it at the dollar. Once again, I think that definitions used will be at some point utilized against participants in these projects. The beast of government is desperate to squeeze as much sweat from the citizen slaves as it can. Of course, they will probably tack on penalties and interest, even if it means more is owed that the value of the actual possession.
I know many believe that crypto is the means to escape their control. I just don't get how when one of the main arguments for it is it is a permanent record of every move you make on it. They might not tie one to a wallet this year, next year or 5 years from now. But if they ever do, the consequences could be devastating.
At least where I live the tax guidelines on virtual currencies are worded in such a way as to make it seem plausible that the Steem platform be interpreted as a Massive Online Multiplayer Game in which case any income generated on it would be taxable only upon conversion into fiat, goods or services or other virtual currencies. This is how earnings on any other gaming platforms are treated. I know others who have asked their local tax authorities how Steem income is to be taxed without getting any clear answers. To me, however, it seems plausible that interpreting the Steem platform as a whole as an MMOG - at least for now - would be a lot simpler.
If Steem income is to be taxed exactly when the earner gains possession of the earnings, then calculating one's taxes becomes very unclear and very complicated. How is Steem Power to be treated, for one thing? It is not liquid. Delegations? Autovoting? Without automated tracking of all transactions, calculating the fiat value of everything is an accounting nightmare. How is the government going to estimate the income generated when no tools to collect the data and do all the calculations even exist? Anyway, those people who earned tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of STEEM, SBD and Vests in 2018 after which the Steem price collapsed, could find themselves in a world of trouble if the tax authorities around the world start going after Steemians. To go about earning that much using an account easily tied with one's real world identity seems to me like an awful risk. There is little risk of that happening now but if Steem fulfills its promise and reaches a market cap in the tens or hundreds of billions many could be in for a nasty surprise.
By the way, I seriously think Steem has a snowball's chance in hell going mainstream unless most new accounts are completely cut off from the reward system and demonetized. First off, most people who use social media have absolutely no desire to earn anything by doing so. They will gladly fatten the giga corporations that monetize the user data provided to them for free. By not earning anything the user won't even have to worry about the tax implications.
Hi @anonsteve
I just realized that I never thanked you for your previous comment.
Followed you already.
Cheers
Piotr
Dear @practicalthought
Amazing comment. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me.
Ehm ... aren't you losing so far on your investment in STEEM? If you convert it to fiat then you surely invested more than steem would be worth now.
So ironic. Crypto and blockchain will make it even harder to escape any sort of control.
ps. I've also noticed that you didn't post anything in a while. Hope you're not giving up on Steemit.
Yours, Piotr
Yeah, my initial investment was a huge loss. However, when I was blogging I did better than many here I guess and traded most of it for a project I believe has more on the ball. I still have more left here than I had bought (I bought in the 1-2.00 ranges) that I consider house money on the off chance the project can be saved despite the motions from the top.
As for the taxes, I ate it out of pocket. There will be a lot of misery coming for those who didn't/aren't paying their taxes I believe, and I will not be one of them. Give unto Caesar etc.
So I log on still to cast my paltry votes in appreciation of the few blogs left (most that I followed have already left the platform, many long ago).