The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued guidance for taxpayers who transact in virtual currency. Revenue Ruling 2019-24 (available here) addresses when distributions of new currency following a soft or hard fork will be a taxable event to the holder of the currency. The IRS also expanded its FAQ page on virtual currency transactions (here).
The IRS wants compliant taxpayers to understand the rules and is alerting non-compliant taxpayers of their requirements through a letter campaign which began last July; we previously wrote about this development here.
The IRS is actively pursuing enforcement for transactions involving cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin. If you have questions about your tax compliance related to digital assets, contact one of our attorneys today.