Inspector General: IRS Needs to Overhaul Bitcoin Tax Strategy

The US Internal Revenue Service needs to overhaul its strategy for bitcoin and other digital currencies, the agency’s inspector general (IG) warned in a report released today.
Originally prepared by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) in September, the report casts a gloomy portrait of the US tax agency’s efforts to oversee and tax digital currency transactions.
According to the TIGTA, there is “little evidence” that US tax officials have moved to create a broader, more cohesive strategy in the two-and-a-half years since the agency declared its intention to tax bitcoin as a kind of property. Other issues include a lack of controls for third-party tools used to report transactions.
A continued failure to address the concerns means that the IRS is at risk of missing taxpayer violations, the report warned.
The IG wrote:

This post was published at Coin Desk on November 8, 2016.