United States taxation is one of the most complex tax systems in the world. Cryptocurrencies have only added another layer of complications to the tax matters of Americans who traded cryptocurrencies.
While some individuals insisted on making use of 1031 like-kind exchange rules to cryptocurrencies, The Tax Cut and Jobs Act that came into effect on January 1, 2018 IRS confined like-kind exchange treatment to Real Property transactions only. This means, there will be more taxpayers that will be subjected to extensive reporting starting 2018 including those who have used like-kind exchange methods in prior years.
It is important to note that IRS has never approved like-kind exchange method for cryptocurrencies and the fact that the agency deliberately confined that treatment to Real Estate starting 2018 indicates that they will take a firm stand on cryptocurrency reporting.
Besides the IRS tax returns, there is one other reporting obligation that Americans are either unaware of or have not complied with in the past.
That is FBAR disclosure for financial accounts held outside United States. More specifically, individual obligation to file FinCEN Form 114 whenever your aggregate balance in all of non-US accounts reaches $10,000. You don’t have to hold $10,000 in one account – if you reach that mark after adding up all non-US financial accounts, you have a FinCEN Form 114 filing obligation.
FinCEN stands for Financial Crime Enforcement Network. As the seriousness embedded within the form name indicates – this is a critical reporting obligation that applies to all United States citizens, green card holders and US tax residents, no matter where you live during the year.
What most Americans do not realize is that the accounts they hold in exchanges outside US, like Binance for instance, need to be taken into account when determining the FinCEN obligation. To make things more complex, you are required to look at highest balance during the year (not balance as of December 31).
Your cryptocurrencies held in US based exchanges, digital wallets (like Myetherwallet) or hardware wallets (like Trezor) are not required to be reported for FBAR purposes but they may be required to be reported on your IRS tax forms under FATCA rules.
It gets very complex, very quickly.
Cryptotapas.com has put together a quick overview guide that tells you about FBAR and FATCA reporting for US tax residents with step-by-step instructions on completing FinCEN Form 114.
You can get the copy of this overview guide here