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by lstyls 3127 days ago
Not true. There are reporting requirements for certain foreign assets, including cash in overseas accounts.
3 comments

Doesn't apply to crypto. Only have to report if the crypto is sold.
I guess the implication is that you have to report foreign assets specifically because it’s not easy for the IRS to obtain records from foreign financial institutions. Since it’s also not easy for them to obtain records from a decentralized crypto-currency then the same justification exists for adding these to a list of things you must report.
The law doesn't care whether the same justification exists. A bitcoin wallet in your house in US is not a foreign asset, since those bits (that representing private keys for bitcoin addresses) are physically in the US.
Right, the existing reporting law doesn’t pertain to assets stored decentralized “institutions” only foreign ones. Presumably that is why they are talking about changing the law.
Right. Exactly. They'll have to change the law so that it does care about personal bitcoin wallets.
How do implications work? Are there lawsuits that have set a precedence?
Implications can explain lawmakers actions and encourage said lawmakers to think about revisions to laws in the future. The article was about a proposed law. If X is similar to Y in some way, and X is treated by the law in a well-defined way, then a lawmaker might consider treating Y similar to how the law treats X.
Please stop using crypto to mean cryptographic currency. Crypto has a well defined meaning.
Words can mean different things and in this case the meaning is obvious from the context.
Fair but context implies I mean CC, as another mentioned. Meaning, devoid of context, is difficult to create. So, please, keep this in mind when you're nit-picking on what you mean.
Asking someone not to use a word a certain way when it is already in popular use seems like a waste of time.
Didn’t know, can you elaborate on that?
operative word: "foreign". But your bitcoin wallet can exist entirely in US.
Yes, but where does the blockchain exist?
...on my hard drive? If I am running a node, that is.
And so it may be bound by your country's laws, and by the laws of all the other countries where it also exists on hard drives, even if they are contradictory, it's potentially a legal nightmare. The current official bitcoin position on this appears to be to stick one's fingers in one's ears an go "La la la I can't hear you"