Coinbase Has Sent 13,000+ Customer Records To The IRS

Coinbase is one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges in the world and a leading exchange in the US for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and other altcoins. This February 23rd, Coinbase notified the 13,000 affected investors that they need to share customer data with a judge in a California federal court so that the funds traded on the exchange get processed through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Speaking of which, the IRS has been concerned with accounts that have $20,000 “in any transaction type” according to the court ruling. Apparently, the number (13,000) refers to the customers who have traded and received more than $20k in transactions – and is way fewer than the one the tax agency requested in December 2016 (500,000 customer records). Therefore, Coinbase deems this a partial win and something that needed to be received on their end.

The details that the IRS requested include “taxpayer ID, name, birth date, address and historical transaction records for certain higher-transaction customers from 2013 to 2015” according to a notification on Coinbase’s website.

This action even triggered some investors on Twitter, revealing what’s happening to them.

 

Received notice from Coinbase today, that my account is one of the 13,000 that they will have to turn over to the IRS under the court order.

Not surprised, I knew I would be in that group. In case you were wondering, I’ve filed & paid taxes for my bitcoin income, gains/losses.

— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) February 23, 2018

Good news: the IRS wanted info on 500,000 customers but the court says we only have to turn over records for 13,000.
Bad news: Baby, it’s you. pic.twitter.com/beiEby6Xa4

— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) February 23, 2018

 

Cryptocurrencies are officially taxed as a property in the US and must be reported as capital gains while the losses must be reported as offset gains.

According to recent reports, only a small percentage of Americans have been reporting their cryptocurrency transactions to the IRS (which is maybe why Coinbase decided to hand out the details to the IRS).

Meanwhile, Coinbase’s market share is growing just as its user base. According to data from Q4 in 2017, the leading exchange now has more than 10.6 million registered users, increasing from less than 5 million in 2016.