NFTs and US taxes: What you should know
Are there any pitfalls in NFT taxation according to the current U.S. laws?
Seems like we now all have stories starting with, “What I did during the pandemic…” Most begin with cleaning out the closet and, hey, guess what? That’s…
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Are there any pitfalls in NFT taxation according to the current U.S. laws?
Seems like we now all have stories starting with, “What I did during the pandemic...” Most begin with cleaning out the closet and, hey, guess what? That’s where my story starts, but I bet you can’t guess where it ends!
Let’s start with what I found in that closet: family photos before the days of digital. I know — memories of boring trips with the kids and people who I either owe money to or who don’t talk to me anymore!
And all of these are nicely arranged in photo albums. You know, photo albums. Big, bulky books with strange plastic adhesive and picture protection sheets that, in reality, ruin every picture, as the pictures can never be easily removed without using a blowtorch.
So, even though I am a senior citizen, I came up with a techie solution. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I started taking smartphone pictures of the photos in the album, realizing that by converting these into digital bits, I would be preserving them for posterity… or at least giving myself an opportunity to put a compromising photo of someone on Facebook. (Now you know why some people don’t talk to me anymore!)
So proud I was of this great idea that I jokingly remarked to Warren, the IT guru at work, “If I embed these into a blockchain, they can be authenticated!” That’s when Warren said, “Yes, you will have created your own NFT, and maybe somebody will buy it, although I can’t imagine why!”
A what? An NFT?
Oh, a nonfungible token, or pieces of digital content linked to the blockchain, the digital database underpinning cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Because of the blockchain’s authentication capabilities, NFTs are unique and not mutually interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. And since they cannot be replaced or exchanged like a U.S. dollar bill or cryptocurrency, they are by definition nonfungible.
Related: The chicken or the egg: Why NFTs could be fungible after all
Typically, NFTs are digital works of art that are easy to trade on the blockchain, where they are authenticated. Nonfungible tokens are the latest cryptocurrency phenomenon to go mainstream. In early March, Christie's auction house sold an NFT artwork — a collage of images by digital artist Beeple — for a whopping $69.3 million. Now, NFTs have suddenly captured the world’s attention, including the United States Internal Revenue Service, which will, as usual, want its share in the form of income tax.
So, how are NFTs taxed?
Let’s follow a hypothetical example — very hypothetical, as you will see.
Let’s suppose that I have created an inventory of NFTs with my family photos and call them “Sammy” for a trade name. And let’s suppose that somehow, the public wants to own these for themselves. The bidding starts, and I am off to the races, selling to the highest bidder.
Let’s say that the cost of my creating one “Sammy” NFT is $250. If this “Sammy” sells for $5,000, I have a $4,750 profit. Other expenses I incur as the creator would be deductible from this to get a net income. For example, home office expenses, travel, advertising, fees to list it on an internet site, salaries to employees, commissions, etc.
Once I get the net income, it will be taxable at ordinary income tax rates. This rate depends on my particular tax bracket, with 37% currently being the highest, and additionally is subject to the dreaded self-employment tax, which is a flat 15.3% on the net. This is the tax law result for the creator of this NFT, provided the creator’s activity amounts to a trade or business.
“Trade or business” itself is not clearly defined by the Internal Revenue Code, but clearly running it like a business — trying to make money — should get us there. If not, it might be deemed a hobby, in which case those other expenses are not deductible, with only the actual cost of creating the object sold being allowed — $250 for a “Sammy.” Not a great tax result, but at least the income from the hobby is not subject to the self-employment tax.
Related: What you should know before buying or selling an NFT in the US
The next step involves the buyer of my “Sammy.” In order to have bought the NFT, the buyer would have had to have used a cryptocurrency of some sort, since that is the only currently accepted currency for purchasing NFTs as of now. The use of that crypto is considered the sale of property and would be subjected to a capital gain or loss, depending on the purchase cost of the crypto used to make the purchase.
For example, if the crypto had been bought for $2,000 and is now used to buy the “Sammy” for $5,000, then there is a capital gain to the buyer in the amount of $3,000 when using the crypto as the medium of exchange. The tax rate will be the favorable capital gain rate if the crypto was held for more than 12 months before being used, tax rates being on a sliding scale based on income with a maximum tax rate of 20%. Otherwise, it will be considered a short-term capital gain subject to those ordinary income tax rates, again depending on the bracket of the buyer.
Last tax step, I promise! The buyer of the “Sammy” eventually sells it for $10,000. That will yield a gain of $5,000 — $10,000 sales price less the original cost of $5,000.
Now, the buyer is going to be either considered a collector of NFTs or in the business of buying and selling NFTs. This issue is similar to our trade or business decision for the creator that we discussed above.
If the buyer is in the business of buying and selling NFTs, then they may have expenses associated with the activity, such as home office expenses, travel, advertising, fees to list the product on an internet site, salaries to employees, commissions, etc. The resulting computed net income will have the same tax results as the creator who was operating as a trade or business: ordinary income tax and self-employment income tax on the net.
If the buyer is only a collector, meaning that they are not operating on a business-like basis, merely making occasional trades when the mood strikes, then the NFT is considered property and will be taxed like our cryptocurrency trade — through capital gains rates.
For capital gains taxes incurred by higher-income earners, over $200,000 — or $250,000 if married and filing jointly — the net investment income tax can kick in, with “kick” being a good verb here, since it adds an additional 3.8% tax. The tax applies to both short- and long-term gains. Now we know why the acronym for net investment income tax is NIIT!
Wait, there’s potentially more… as in, more tax. If that collector of NFTs is acquiring NFTs that are digital representations of tangible assets that attach to the NFT, then the capital gain tax rate could escalate to a top rate of 28% instead of 20%, provided that the individual tax rate goes above 20%.
Consider the IRS crackdown last year in which it sent letters to 10,000 crypto investors. According to the IRS, these were “educational” letters about the need to report taxable crypto transactions on a tax return. You can be sure, therefore, that the Beeple transaction has put NFTs on the IRS’s radar.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
The opinions expressed are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the university or its affiliates.
cryptocurrency bitcoin blockchain crypto btc pandemic covid-19
Uncategorized
Comments on February Employment Report
The headline jobs number in the February employment report was above expectations; however, December and January payrolls were revised down by 167,000 combined. The participation rate was unchanged, the employment population ratio decreased, and the …
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Prime (25 to 54 Years Old) Participation
Since the overall participation rate is impacted by both cyclical (recession) and demographic (aging population, younger people staying in school) reasons, here is the employment-population ratio for the key working age group: 25 to 54 years old.
The 25 to 54 years old participation rate increased in February to 83.5% from 83.3% in January, and the 25 to 54 employment population ratio increased to 80.7% from 80.6% the previous month.
Average Hourly Wages
The graph shows the nominal year-over-year change in "Average Hourly Earnings" for all private employees from the Current Employment Statistics (CES). Wage growth has trended down after peaking at 5.9% YoY in March 2022 and was at 4.3% YoY in February.
Part Time for Economic Reasons
From the BLS report:"The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.4 million, changed little in February. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs."The number of persons working part time for economic reasons decreased in February to 4.36 million from 4.42 million in February. This is slightly above pre-pandemic levels.
These workers are included in the alternate measure of labor underutilization (U-6) that increased to 7.3% from 7.2% in the previous month. This is down from the record high in April 2020 of 23.0% and up from the lowest level on record (seasonally adjusted) in December 2022 (6.5%). (This series started in 1994). This measure is above the 7.0% level in February 2020 (pre-pandemic).
Unemployed over 26 Weeks
This graph shows the number of workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more. According to the BLS, there are 1.203 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks and still want a job, down from 1.277 million the previous month.
This is close to pre-pandemic levels.
Job Streak
| Headline Jobs, Top 10 Streaks | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year Ended | Streak, Months | |
| 1 | 2019 | 100 |
| 2 | 1990 | 48 |
| 3 | 2007 | 46 |
| 4 | 1979 | 45 |
| 5 | 20241 | 38 |
| 6 tie | 1943 | 33 |
| 6 tie | 1986 | 33 |
| 6 tie | 2000 | 33 |
| 9 | 1967 | 29 |
| 10 | 1995 | 25 |
| 1Currrent Streak | ||
Summary:
The headline monthly jobs number was above consensus expectations; however, December and January payrolls were revised down by 167,000 combined. The participation rate was unchanged, the employment population ratio decreased, and the unemployment rate was increased to 3.9%. Another solid report.
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Immune cells can adapt to invading pathogens, deciding whether to fight now or prepare for the next battle
When faced with a threat, T cells have the decision-making flexibility to both clear out the pathogen now and ready themselves for a future encounter.
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How does your immune system decide between fighting invading pathogens now or preparing to fight them in the future? Turns out, it can change its mind.
Every person has 10 million to 100 million unique T cells that have a critical job in the immune system: patrolling the body for invading pathogens or cancerous cells to eliminate. Each of these T cells has a unique receptor that allows it to recognize foreign proteins on the surface of infected or cancerous cells. When the right T cell encounters the right protein, it rapidly forms many copies of itself to destroy the offending pathogen.
Importantly, this process of proliferation gives rise to both short-lived effector T cells that shut down the immediate pathogen attack and long-lived memory T cells that provide protection against future attacks. But how do T cells decide whether to form cells that kill pathogens now or protect against future infections?
We are a team of bioengineers studying how immune cells mature. In our recently published research, we found that having multiple pathways to decide whether to kill pathogens now or prepare for future invaders boosts the immune system’s ability to effectively respond to different types of challenges.
Fight or remember?
To understand when and how T cells decide to become effector cells that kill pathogens or memory cells that prepare for future infections, we took movies of T cells dividing in response to a stimulus mimicking an encounter with a pathogen.
Specifically, we tracked the activity of a gene called T cell factor 1, or TCF1. This gene is essential for the longevity of memory cells. We found that stochastic, or probabilistic, silencing of the TCF1 gene when cells confront invading pathogens and inflammation drives an early decision between whether T cells become effector or memory cells. Exposure to higher levels of pathogens or inflammation increases the probability of forming effector cells.
Surprisingly, though, we found that some effector cells that had turned off TCF1 early on were able to turn it back on after clearing the pathogen, later becoming memory cells.
Through mathematical modeling, we determined that this flexibility in decision making among memory T cells is critical to generating the right number of cells that respond immediately and cells that prepare for the future, appropriate to the severity of the infection.
Understanding immune memory
The proper formation of persistent, long-lived T cell memory is critical to a person’s ability to fend off diseases ranging from the common cold to COVID-19 to cancer.
From a social and cognitive science perspective, flexibility allows people to adapt and respond optimally to uncertain and dynamic environments. Similarly, for immune cells responding to a pathogen, flexibility in decision making around whether to become memory cells may enable greater responsiveness to an evolving immune challenge.
Memory cells can be subclassified into different types with distinct features and roles in protective immunity. It’s possible that the pathway where memory cells diverge from effector cells early on and the pathway where memory cells form from effector cells later on give rise to particular subtypes of memory cells.
Our study focuses on T cell memory in the context of acute infections the immune system can successfully clear in days, such as cold, the flu or food poisoning. In contrast, chronic conditions such as HIV and cancer require persistent immune responses; long-lived, memory-like cells are critical for this persistence. Our team is investigating whether flexible memory decision making also applies to chronic conditions and whether we can leverage that flexibility to improve cancer immunotherapy.
Resolving uncertainty surrounding how and when memory cells form could help improve vaccine design and therapies that boost the immune system’s ability to provide long-term protection against diverse infectious diseases.
Kathleen Abadie was funded by a NSF (National Science Foundation) Graduate Research Fellowships. She performed this research in affiliation with the University of Washington Department of Bioengineering.
Elisa Clark performed her research in affiliation with the University of Washington (UW) Department of Bioengineering and was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRFP) and by a predoctoral fellowship through the UW Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM).
Hao Yuan Kueh receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.
stimulus covid-19 yuan vaccine stimulusInternational
President Biden Delivers The “Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President”
President Biden Delivers The "Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President"
Having successfully raged, ranted, lied, and yelled through…
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Having successfully raged, ranted, lied, and yelled through the State of The Union, President Biden can go back to his crypt now.
Whatever 'they' gave Biden, every American man, woman, and the other should be allowed to take it - though it seems the cocktail brings out 'dark Brandon'?
Tl;dw: Biden's Speech tonight ...
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Fund Ukraine.
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Trump is threat to democracy and America itself.
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Abortion is good.
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American Economy is stronger than ever.
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Inflation wasn't Biden's fault.
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Illegals are Americans too.
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Republicans are responsible for the border crisis.
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Trump is bad.
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Biden stands with trans-children.
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J6 was the worst insurrection since the Civil War.
(h/t @TCDMS99)
Tucker Carlson's response sums it all up perfectly:
"that was possibly the darkest, most un-American speech given by an American president. It wasn't a speech, it was a rant..."
Carlson continued: "The true measure of a nation's greatness lies within its capacity to control borders, yet Bid refuses to do it."
"In a fair election, Joe Biden cannot win"
And concluded:
“There was not a meaningful word for the entire duration about the things that actually matter to people who live here.”
Victor Davis Hanson added some excellent color, but this was probably the best line on Biden:
"he doesn't care... he lives in an alternative reality."
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 8, 2024
* * *
Watch SOTU Live here...
* * *
Mises' Connor O'Keeffe, warns: "Be on the Lookout for These Lies in Biden's State of the Union Address."
On Thursday evening, President Joe Biden is set to give his third State of the Union address. The political press has been buzzing with speculation over what the president will say. That speculation, however, is focused more on how Biden will perform, and which issues he will prioritize. Much of the speech is expected to be familiar.
The story Biden will tell about what he has done as president and where the country finds itself as a result will be the same dishonest story he's been telling since at least the summer.
He'll cite government statistics to say the economy is growing, unemployment is low, and inflation is down.
Something that has been frustrating Biden, his team, and his allies in the media is that the American people do not feel as economically well off as the official data says they are. Despite what the White House and establishment-friendly journalists say, the problem lies with the data, not the American people's ability to perceive their own well-being.
As I wrote back in January, the reason for the discrepancy is the lack of distinction made between private economic activity and government spending in the most frequently cited economic indicators. There is an important difference between the two:
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Government, unlike any other entity in the economy, can simply take money and resources from others to spend on things and hire people. Whether or not the spending brings people value is irrelevant
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It's the private sector that's responsible for producing goods and services that actually meet people's needs and wants. So, the private components of the economy have the most significant effect on people's economic well-being.
Recently, government spending and hiring has accounted for a larger than normal share of both economic activity and employment. This means the government is propping up these traditional measures, making the economy appear better than it actually is. Also, many of the jobs Biden and his allies take credit for creating will quickly go away once it becomes clear that consumers don't actually want whatever the government encouraged these companies to produce.
On top of all that, the administration is dealing with the consequences of their chosen inflation rhetoric.
Since its peak in the summer of 2022, the president's team has talked about inflation "coming back down," which can easily give the impression that it's prices that will eventually come back down.
But that's not what that phrase means. It would be more honest to say that price increases are slowing down.
Americans are finally waking up to the fact that the cost of living will not return to prepandemic levels, and they're not happy about it.
The president has made some clumsy attempts at damage control, such as a Super Bowl Sunday video attacking food companies for "shrinkflation"—selling smaller portions at the same price instead of simply raising prices.
In his speech Thursday, Biden is expected to play up his desire to crack down on the "corporate greed" he's blaming for high prices.
In the name of "bringing down costs for Americans," the administration wants to implement targeted price ceilings - something anyone who has taken even a single economics class could tell you does more harm than good. Biden would never place the blame for the dramatic price increases we've experienced during his term where it actually belongs—on all the government spending that he and President Donald Trump oversaw during the pandemic, funded by the creation of $6 trillion out of thin air - because that kind of spending is precisely what he hopes to kick back up in a second term.
If reelected, the president wants to "revive" parts of his so-called Build Back Better agenda, which he tried and failed to pass in his first year. That would bring a significant expansion of domestic spending. And Biden remains committed to the idea that Americans must be forced to continue funding the war in Ukraine. That's another topic Biden is expected to highlight in the State of the Union, likely accompanied by the lie that Ukraine spending is good for the American economy. It isn't.
It's not possible to predict all the ways President Biden will exaggerate, mislead, and outright lie in his speech on Thursday. But we can be sure of two things. The "state of the Union" is not as strong as Biden will say it is. And his policy ambitions risk making it much worse.
* * *
The American people will be tuning in on their smartphones, laptops, and televisions on Thursday evening to see if 'sloppy joe' 81-year-old President Joe Biden can coherently put together more than two sentences (even with a teleprompter) as he gives his third State of the Union in front of a divided Congress.
President Biden will speak on various topics to convince voters why he shouldn't be sent to a retirement home.
The state of our union under President Biden: three years of decline. pic.twitter.com/Da1KOIb3eR
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) March 7, 2024
According to CNN sources, here are some of the topics Biden will discuss tonight:
Economic issues: Biden and his team have been drafting a speech heavy on economic populism, aides said, with calls for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy – an attempt to draw a sharp contrast with Republicans and their likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
Health care expenses: Biden will also push for lowering health care costs and discuss his efforts to go after drug manufacturers to lower the cost of prescription medications — all issues his advisers believe can help buoy what have been sagging economic approval ratings.
Israel's war with Hamas: Also looming large over Biden's primetime address is the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which has consumed much of the president's time and attention over the past few months. The president's top national security advisers have been working around the clock to try to finalize a ceasefire-hostages release deal by Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that begins next week.
An argument for reelection: Aides view Thursday's speech as a critical opportunity for the president to tout his accomplishments in office and lay out his plans for another four years in the nation's top job. Even though viewership has declined over the years, the yearly speech reliably draws tens of millions of households.
Sources provided more color on Biden's SOTU address:
The speech is expected to be heavy on economic populism. The president will talk about raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. He'll highlight efforts to cut costs for the American people, including pushing Congress to help make prescription drugs more affordable.
Biden will talk about the need to preserve democracy and freedom, a cornerstone of his re-election bid. That includes protecting and bolstering reproductive rights, an issue Democrats believe will energize voters in November. Biden is also expected to promote his unity agenda, a key feature of each of his addresses to Congress while in office.
Biden is also expected to give remarks on border security while the invasion of illegals has become one of the most heated topics among American voters. A majority of voters are frustrated with radical progressives in the White House facilitating the illegal migrant invasion.
It is probable that the president will attribute the failure of the Senate border bill to the Republicans, a claim many voters view as unfounded. This is because the White House has the option to issue an executive order to restore border security, yet opts not to do so
Maybe this is why?
Most Americans are still unaware that the census counts ALL people, including illegal immigrants, for deciding how many House seats each state gets!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2024
This results in Dem states getting roughly 20 more House seats, which is another strong incentive for them not to deport illegals.
While Biden addresses the nation, the Biden administration will be armed with a social media team to pump propaganda to at least 100 million Americans.
"The White House hosted about 70 creators, digital publishers, and influencers across three separate events" on Wednesday and Thursday, a White House official told CNN.
Not a very capable social media team...
The State of Confusion https://t.co/C31mHc5ABJ
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 7, 2024
The administration's move to ramp up social media operations comes as users on X are mostly free from government censorship with Elon Musk at the helm. This infuriates Democrats, who can no longer censor their political enemies on X.
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers tell Axios that the president's SOTU performance will be critical as he tries to dispel voter concerns about his elderly age. The address reached as many as 27 million people in 2023.
"We are all nervous," said one House Democrat, citing concerns about the president's "ability to speak without blowing things."
The SOTU address comes as Biden's polling data is in the dumps.
BetOnline has created several money-making opportunities for gamblers tonight, such as betting on what word Biden mentions the most.
As well as...
We will update you when Tucker Carlson's live feed of SOTU is published.
Fuck it. We’ll do it live! Thursday night, March 7, our live response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech. pic.twitter.com/V0UwOrgKvz
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 6, 2024
EyePoint poaches medical chief from Apellis; Sandoz CFO, longtime BioNTech exec to retire
Watch Live: President Biden Reminds Americans Just How Good They’ve Got It Thanks To Him
Watch: President Biden Delivers The “Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President”
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People Who Received Ivermectin Were Better Off, Study Finds
Biden to call for first-time homebuyer tax credit, construction of 2 million homes
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