This was a question asked of me yesterday on my latest post. I've been asked this multiple times since I first entered the crypto realm via social blockchain.
I've also had some very lively discussions on this topic, in one instance being told to stop stating my position and get the F out of the blog post.
So I'm going to explain my reasons why I do it, and why depending on your country you probably should too.
To be blunt here, I've been amazed at how many otherwise very smart people believe that crypto is a long term solution for privacy and keeping the authorities off of ones property.
I say this, as blockchain is a PERMANENT RECORD. While they may not know it was you yesterday, today or tomorrow all it would take is one slip up.
I suspect however that given the many doors to tracking us (including spyware built right into hardware) AND using their gateways to access internet that they already know and choose not to act YET.
Using an exchange to buy into crypto, or cash out. You gave yourself away.
I have pointed out many times for example, the U.S. government is the largest holder of Bitcoin.
https://www.investopedia.com/news/how-us-government-handles-its-stash-bitcoins/
And this isn't some anomaly because of their possession of the Bitfinex hacked coins. This has been going on back as far as 2013, possibly earlier.
https://www.ibtimes.com/worlds-biggest-bitcoin-wallet-owned-us-government-1514100
I've mentioned many times over the years since reluctantly joining the ranks of crypto through social media this one important factor.
They confiscated that Bitcoin through various means, all involving seizure.
They have an entire task force with software tracking and logging connections constantly to tie folks to their wallets.
The government spying apparatus is growing with much aid from the public corporation sector. Regulations demanding one self identify for even many nominal transactions now.
It would be very difficult for an individual to have a drastic change in their wealth and holdings without it being recorded in the data banks of the government. So suppose crypto hits for the lucky person investing.
And now instead of living paycheck to paycheck and renting everything, driving beat up car etc ones life changes to...
Nice cars, buying some property, affording vacations etc.
Do any of you really believe that won't be noticeable in their algorithms?
To further complicate this, the idea is being pushed already to add an additional 87000 agents to the IRS here, the tax collection department that was instituted when the not so Federal Reserve was created in 1913 (Not wishing to argue over the previous version from the 1800's).
https://bebusinessed.com/history/history-of-the-irs/
If you'll notice in the above article, it implies that the almost doubling of the staff would be to go after wealthy tax dodgers.
I would suggest that based on hindsight the talk is always on going after the wealthy while being most punitive and targeting of the riff raff who might be clawing their way out of the ditch.
The only wealthy that would be targeted would be those riff raff who claw their way out in other words.
Which
Would Be
Me
And likely you too.
I have some ideas on what I would do if for example Blurt and Dig were to become valuable to make a life change for myself.
I refuse to jeopardize that in what I consider a naive belief that I can hide these permanent records from their superior tech, manpower and financing.
If the time comes my life is changed from this, and I can buy land and other things I desire that are outside of my means now. Then I want it all above board and not have it ripped from me in the blink of an eye to add to their large wallet.
For myself, this is the logical step to take when it comes to permanent records and the mass data harvesting that increases daily on us all.
While I'm definitely ignorant when it comes to tech and such, I'm not on the lengths the government will go to when it comes to taking ones assets and imprisoning one. Or worse.
A famous saying from the bible I believe is a smart path.
Give unto Caesar what is Caesars.
I believe in the next 5 years there will be an EPIDEMIC of folks who refused to declare, at least in the U.S who will be punished and lose their possessions. All for not declaring now what they are doing. The trap has been set now for two years demanding declarations on taxes without much bite.
I mentioned in a recent article the murder of Bill Cooper, the OG truther. All under the pretense it was because he wasn't paying his taxes to support the corruption anymore.
I can promise you without being psychic that the bite is coming, and in this case is much worse than the bark.
I had my own business for a time and would take cash whenever possible which went in my pocket and not on my books, no profits, no tax.
Before that I was a partner in a company that paid me so on PAYE but when I broke away I got a request from the taxman for my earnings as a partner. I had none and the paperwork mysteriously disappeared in a fire according to one of the ex partners. I was ordered to pay something like 1600£ (it may be more I don't remember). I refused. They chased me for a while but gave up and after 5 years they write it off.
Just like you should never talk to the police in case you incriminate yourself I wouldn't give the taxman any info either.
Tax is theft. Look up the history of taxes, they were to pay for wars originally. They are unlawful.
Manero is private I've been told. If you keep it on a hard wallet it's like cash under the mattress.
I agree tax is theft. However here in the US they are quick to seize assets and jail one.
I don't know how well any chain can really be private, but I know many like myself signed up for the Steem account with our email addresses. I established a direct link from the start and I'll pay those taxes and not need to explain how I got wealthy, if I ever do from this.
If you haven't seen it - this film goes into the issue of taxation and fascism, and is well worth a watch.
Based on the comments I imagine I know a lot of it and it will be quite good.
Many years ago a much younger me in my 30's spent most of that decade researching so much. I read easily 1000-1500 pages of non fiction weekly on subjects of history in areas such as oil, central banks etc.
In fact a good book to explain the current history of central banking I recommend for the U.S. is
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/326358.Secrets_of_the_Temple
Yes, it's a few years old now and you are probably aware of a lot of the info - but it's very well put together. The director was Hollywood producer Aaron Russo - and from memory it begins with his journey trying to prove whether or not taxation is legal, and it evolves from there. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have a look into the book when I have a spare moment. The Creature From Jekyll Island is also good - but probably already on your radar.
How do you handle the initial value of dig at time of airdrop?
Do you record blurt earnings as income at the time of receipt even BP? How do you get historical USD value of this income?
Ok, so the good news on the Dig airdrop is that there was zero value on it, until Feb 6th it looks like. So the taxes would be zero initially on the airdrop and all coins earned via staking until Feb 6th.
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/dig-chain
I keep a spreadsheet that is probably more complicated than it needs to be. I enter my daily numbers in it. Unfortunately I wasn't bothering to look up the daily value of Blurt while doing this as it was already time consuming. I did gather those now and just have to multiply my daily earnings by value so I can figure what my income tax on it will be.
There is a download you can do from CoinGecko to aid you in knowing the daily values.
Here is how to access that.
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/blurt/historical_data/usd?start_date=2021-01-01&end_date=2021-12-31#panel
Step one is to go to Historical Value and then input the target range. It might already take you to the correct range based on what the url I shared above says.
Step two once you have that done is scroll to the bottom. It will give an option to download the file so you can do this offline if you wish.
Hope that helps. Let me know if something comes up or I didn't explain something well enough.
That does thank you.
I have my claim rewards data from ecosythesizer.
It is very much in my best interest to claim it, because blurt could become very big and it will be cheaper in the long run to claim it as income.
1 as a non resident US citizen I still have to file but basically the first $100k is tax free.
At some point before selling I can take other legal tax measures like gifting to my non citizen wife, or setting up a charitable trust.
We cross those bridges when we come to them.
First 48k of capital gains is also tax free on longer term investments.
My numbers are off the top of my head and I am not a tax or financial expert.
Monero is the only crypto that I know is completely private. You can't tell who sent what to whom, and you can't see the balance of a wallet. I think the IRS or one of those three-letter agencies has a reward for anyone who can break Monero. So far, nobody has been able to crack it.
I can't know for sure that it will always be that way, but at least for now, it's completely private.
Then the trick as I see it (barring spyware that is known to exist in hardware) would be how to get the Monero without the traditional entering into the crypto world through an exchange that demands KYC.
I imagine the IRS pays even closer scrutiny based on what you mention here to all wallets involved. I'm ignorant of the tech, but imagine anyone who gets some at an exchange is logged by the exchange in some way.
Seems safer to me to walk as though there is zero privacy even if it all seems safe. As you point out, if some day it's broken, they will have a field day sifting through it all.
Nice one
I didn't declare fucking shit lol
While we are asking provocative questions, what do you think about the Elon Musk buying Twitter?
Do you care the board rejected him, or i am curious what your opinion on all this is.
Has elon musk finally buy Twitter?
I think it's all theater. Not sure why so many seem to worship this guy. He wants to go all Dr. Delgado on us and install control chips in our brains.
While there has been much advancement in this which allows such manipulation without the implants now, I have to imagine the implant is much more powerful.
Spot on!
No matter what happens, government would never be able to take over crypto.
Instead of them to suggest was crypto could go forward, they're demanding taxes.
It's well. We'll still thrive
NOPE
I understand why ,.. it's hard to stay below there radar .
Lot's of the daily comfort depends on it ,.. i know , i am living it .
Maybe even kind of lucky that i can , so no judgment from me .
But you are aware that you keep paying for what the fuck governments are doing i guess . ,.. so seeking way's to leave the ruling system could be the best option . Before tax depth and payments force you to accept the ubi or centralized governmental social credit score account ,.. with some goodies in it , to lure you in some more .
Yes, I'm aware which is why I've lived my life much as I have. For which I have hardships today that have resulted from many of those choices.
I think that especially with something that is a permanent record such as blockchain, when you know there are connections (my case as well as I would guess the majority in crypto) to your wallet it is the right move to claim it. They will be tracking down who owns what (imagine they have to a larger extent than many realize) and they won't be kind when it comes to dealing with those who ignored their years of warnings.
I'm hopeful that this can be life changing for me as it has for others on different chains. And I want there to be no doubt the drastic lifestyle difference that would entail for me is easily explained coupled with a receipt that the blood money they demand to live under their rule is documented.
In Indonesia, there are two people who are in prison for using fake crypto or not paying taxes. I hope you pay taxes, even if you are against taxes. Don't let yourself be imprisoned just because you don't pay taxes.
Let's take the positive position of paying taxes. Hopefully the taxes taken are returned to the people who are entitled to them. That way the taxes we pay are not in vain.
In my country much of it is stolen by the politicians and their powerful backers and laundered through so called programs pretending to help others but just makes them more powerful and richer.
Part of the price one must accept to be left alone and not jailed or murdered by them.
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Great post @practicalthought, I agree in most what you wrote, even when I´m one of those guys who try to pay as low as possible to nothing taxes ;)
But on the other handside I know from my long businesslife what can happen with you when you cheat with these tax-authorities (whereever they are) to companies and normal persons, and moreover I knew some of those guys who´s BTC was confiscated a long long time ago when the coins where far away from being worthy like today.
So I only hold the smallest part of crypto in private, the rest is sitting in Investmentvehicles to get a better scalability of the taxeable outcome, thus also can be structured clever and wise for limiting the tax-effects on the private person when it comes to outflows to the person (an shareholder of the company or some other kind of beneficiary of the gainings in the company) .
I can only advise everyone to think very carefully about what they are doing in the crypto universe.
These guys in our governments are chronically broke and that's why they have the modern and electronically sophisticated sheriff of Nothingham (tax authorities) to collect whatever they can.
And they don't even care if it's really in accordance with the law or not, in the worst case you just get the terrorist stamp put on you and poof the money is gone legally, because you're a bad guy, a special case and then it doesn't matter any more.
Oh yes, and then have fun with all those who know better when suing against this "injustice", you will only sink more money, you won't win in any case, or maybe shortly before you die.
Is it worth it?
I've never been a lover of the taxes either. But I know when one is so easily tied as many of us are to the crypto it's going to be a matter of when they make it around to us.
I really hope that crypto will be a game changer for me and I want all the documentation they got every cent of their blood money if it does.
Thanks for such a great comment.
you´re welcome with such a kind of postings/comments, I love when peeps are having their own mindset, and also some answers if some like to look behind their positions or statements, I like peeps who are not like the wind --> today here and tomorrow at another place and often coming and going with heavy damages behind them ;)
Nice one
I AM 100% against most taxes. The act of filing every year is completely voluntary and people only really do it to get their money BACK from the government. I am extremely Libertarian in the regards of government staying the hell out of our business PERIOD. If we all stop paying these corrupt career extortionists we can watch them wither and turn to dust. Civilization does not need Caesar to tell us what is HIS. FREE PEOPLE OWE TYRANTS NOTHING!
I too am against taxes, and see them for precisely what they are. I also see that many have been murdered and imprisoned for not paying the taxes. My government has no issue with sending a small army with military grade weapons to ones location with the intent to murder not only the person targeted but any who might be in the way.
They are also quick to seize ones property. In fact every year they seize untold billions from innocent people under a law called asset forfeiture where they take the property and you are responsible for fighting to prove your innocence to get it back.
I also wish to say that I'm against armed robbery, and should be free to walk around fanning myself with thousands of dollars and not worry about it. However, I won't do that because I might just be the victim of an armed robbery.
I figure it like this (instead of giving hundreds of examples as I did above).
There is the ideal way life should be where we all hold hands and sing kumbaya together. Then there is life where shit is dangerous and one need watch the path they wish to tread and walk along it preparing for the worst, especially when it is likely that these worst things will happen if one haphazardly throws caution to the wind.
I say in closing this comment this.
Here in the states, it isn't a matter of if they will be coming for you over the taxes, especially if it is a decent sum of money.
It's a matter of when.
And using blockchain is an admission of guilt forever.
It’s like paying the Mob. I see it same way. They have a monopoly on violence. It’s s the cost of doing biz.
Exactly. Years ago after my research into government I actually began saying it would be impossible from the outside to know where the actual government stops and the mob begins, they are intertwined so much.
Nice post
Sir please cheek my post 🙏
https://blurt.blog/instablurt/@sumon01/feeding-some-poor-dunkhi-on-the-occasion-of-ramadan-from-samaj-kalyan-sangha-or-or-iftar-of-some-innocent-children-as-innocent