15
votes
Federal court authorizes IRS John Doe summons seeking identities of US taxpayers who conducted at least $20,000 in cryptocurrency transactions during the years 2016 to 2020
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- Court Authorizes Service of John Doe Summons Seeking Identities of U.S. Taxpayers Who Have Used Cryptocurrency
- Published
- May 5 2021
- Word count
- 444 words
To be pedantic, they're not really the same thing. An IRA (Roth or not) is a type of taxed advantaged account. It is usually invested in something, as growth is tax-free, but you can simply leave it in a checkings account as well, slowly dying to inflation. Or invest it in most things - but of your choosing (or, usually the company you opened it with has a few products and you choose).
Most things, except financial derivatives, collectibles, personal real estate, and a few other things.
Notably... that list does not include cryptocurrencies. That's right, you can seriously get Bitcoin IRAs (and presumably other cryptocurrencies). Very possible the IRS will update the exceptions to exclude cryptocurrencies in the future, but at the moment, you can invest your IRA funds into crypto.
Not that that's a very good idea considering they're typically for retirement, but on the other hand there are a bunch of loopholes specifically with Roth IRAs that crypto speculators could abuse to great effect.
We probably should resist the urge to talk about cryptocurrency in general in every topic that's about cryptocurrency, or we're just going to be repeating the same conversation. But yes, theoretically you could lose everything you put in. You might compare with buying a lottery ticket or some kinds of stock options.
Unlike a lottery ticket, though, nobody can say for sure that the odds are against you. So I think cryptocurrencies are weirder and more interesting than lottery tickets.