Sure… I read that. The instructions do a great job of explaining a few cases of what is definitely a digital asset, and they explain what you and I both know are obviously included.
The instructions “include” a few obvious things. They don’t “exclude” anything like V-bucks.
So what constitutes a “representation of value”?
I can buy and sell V-Bucks cards, can I not?
It may sound like I’m being a bit obtuse, but there is nothing here that tells me whether my ultra rare skin that I received that I could sell my account for $100 on eBay applies or not.
Many things are obviously a digital asset, but determining what isn’t is far trickier, especially once you move away from perhaps the easiest example of digital currency in Fortnite.
Saying “obviously they’re targeting Bitcoin and the Charlie Bit My Finger NFT” tells me what I already know I should declare. Nothing tells me what I shouldn’t… almost like they can decide that whenever they want during an audit.
I guess most reasonable answer is that you should include anything that would transfer a significant amount of money to the IRS. Starbucks points and FFXIV gold may be theoretically included, but the liquidity for those is so small that the IRS just doesn't care and would never enforce it. They don't want that $100. What they're trying to do here is get a cut of the billions of dollars that come from crypto.
I know that's probably obvious to you, but I don't think there's much more to it. It's just another way to make money.
> there is nothing here that tells me whether my ultra rare skin that I received
> that I could sell my account for $100 on eBay applies or not.
You're looking at this entirely the wrong way. There's no new law here: the reason you don't see the guidance you are looking for is that from a tax perspective there is not any difference between bitcoin and a rare game skin. They are both personal property and if a US citizen sells them at a gain they are liable for capital gains tax. [1]
> Almost everything you own and use for personal or investment purposes is a
> capital asset. Examples include a home, personal-use items like household
> furnishings, and stocks or bonds held as investments. When you sell a capital
> asset, the difference between the adjusted basis in the asset and the amount
> you realized from the sale is a capital gain or a capital loss.
The question is on form 1040 for two reasons:
1) As a heads up to people that may not have realized that crypto gains are taxable.
2) To force you to lie if you want to conceal gains, so you can't claim ignorance later.
A $100 gain on a skin that you sell on ebay (less your cost basis, however that might be computed) has _always_ been a taxable event and the failure to declare it is minor tax evasion of the type that literally everyone is guilty of. But the IRS doesn't particularly care about small beer like that. The crypto question is there because for some people there's serious money involved.
(IANAL, but if you have any question at all about this a CPA or tax attorney is well worth the cost)
I think the more subtle question is about assets you got via a prize. For example if you win a real-world lottery, you have to pay taxes on the winnings. If you win a crypto lottery, you have to pay taxes on the winnings (at the time of winning, not at the time of cash out!). If you "win" a loot-crate lottery, do you have to pay taxes on your winnings? And afact the answer is no, because the loot crate thing isn't an asset, it's treated more like a consumable good. On the other hand, I can see the argument that in fact it's an illiquid asset (like pre-IPO stock) and so you need to pay taxes on the income immediately.
On the off chance you later sell your account, you should pay taxes on that income and it mostly comes out in a wash, unless the value of the lootbox item has changed significantly (because no one plays fortnite anymore)
The IRS guidelines specifically exclude assets you purchased.
And more generally the guidelines the require you to provide the capital gains or loses, I don't think there's a secondary market for such in game items to be redeemed for dollars or equivalents.
(Now there is something funny here about MTGO and the set redemption mechanic, so you could argue that MTGO cards are digital assets, but MTGA cards aren't).
> Any game that allows trading has a potential to create a secondary market.
Even games without trading (or the ability to do lootboxes with real money) have the potential to create a secondary market, since you can always sell accounts. My OSRS party hat has some real world market value. I don't need to count it as income on my taxes.
I sold some collectibles on Steam to a guy for euros, pretty sure that the only reason it wasn't a taxable was because it was a one-off and under the reporting minimum.
I would figure that the conversion to cash would be the taxable event. After all their value is largely indeterminate (and at that point 0) while the collectible is being given out.
IIRC this created problems for Blizzard when they did the real money auction house on Diablo III, and was part of why that was ended.
I agree for assets like those, the point is that for many other assets (art, Bitcoin, cash, stock), receipt of the asset for less than market value is also taxable.
But those usually have more developed secondary markets where prices can be widely known (and also nontrivial value). I can at least see the argument.
The instructions “include” a few obvious things. They don’t “exclude” anything like V-bucks.
So what constitutes a “representation of value”?
I can buy and sell V-Bucks cards, can I not?
It may sound like I’m being a bit obtuse, but there is nothing here that tells me whether my ultra rare skin that I received that I could sell my account for $100 on eBay applies or not.
Many things are obviously a digital asset, but determining what isn’t is far trickier, especially once you move away from perhaps the easiest example of digital currency in Fortnite.
Saying “obviously they’re targeting Bitcoin and the Charlie Bit My Finger NFT” tells me what I already know I should declare. Nothing tells me what I shouldn’t… almost like they can decide that whenever they want during an audit.