Is Steemit an “Impractical Platform” in View of Tax Regulations? A Reddit Argument Review + 1 SBD Reward for Concise Solution to a Tax Problem.
(As per recent Japanese legislation, all gains on cryptocurrencies must be reported, even across crypto to crypto trades.)
I got into a bit of a debate over on Reddit,
where someone said Steemit is impractical, because it doesn’t make complying with the mess of vague legal regulations and red tape the government here in Japan has recently put forth, easy or practical.
Basically, he is saying that the fault is not to be found in nonsensical laws and impossible regulations dreampt up by bureaucrats in their houses of power, but with platforms like Steemit that don’t, in his view, cater to these vague and ill-defined regulations.
I’ll post screencaps of the thread now. My final comment containing the scenario to be answered was too long to capture, so I will just post the text. If you can clearly and concisely answer the scenario put forth, I’ll send you 1 SBD.
My initial comment:
His response, claiming Steemit is “impractical.”
I wonder how the boot polish tastes in his mouth, or if he understands why Bitcoin was created in the first place? Anyway, forget just for a second that taxation is legalized extortion..and let’s see whether these new regulations can even realistically be followed, regardless.
The final scenario I presented this user, after he insisted that blockchain-based SMS platforms on Steemit are “impractical,” was this, proving that the legislation makes even Bitcoin trading “impractical”:
You buy .02 BTC at X date for X price
You buy .03 BTC at later Y date for Y price
You buy .05 BTC at still later Z date for Z price
You now have 0.1 BTC
One day, you decide to trade .07 of this 0.1 BTC for some XMR. The XMR then rises in value, prior to you exchanging it for fiat, effectively “cashing it out.”
When it comes time to report your income and gains as per the Japanese crypto legislation, you will need to parse the data and be able to clearly tell how much each respective decimal of your initial BTC purchases gained. The problem is, which of the first three decimal amounts, and to what proportion, comprise the .07 BTC you traded for XMR of the 0.1 BTC total?
Was it the .02 BTC bought at X date for X price and the .05 bought at Z date for Z price? Or was it .03 of X date’s purchase and .04 of Z date’s purchase? OR, was it some combination of all three? Say, .01 BTC bought at X date/price, .02 bought at Y date/price, and .04 bought at Z date/price?
Each of these scenarios would result in a different price gain amount when factoring the gains from the respective times/prices of acquisition, across the trade to Monero, and finally up to the final exchange/purchase/“cash out.”
So who’s truly being “impractical” here?
Check out the full thread to see my comments in full, which focus on the violent nature of taxation as well as the current tax “law.”
Render unto Ceasar...
~*~
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Tube Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
This answer obviously won't be part of the competition, because as you and I know, there is no simple answer to that complicated tax question.
You and that individual will never be able to come to any agreement or conclusion because you see mirror images of things.
I was watching a video the other day of a crowd of starving Venezuelans, beating a cow to death with rocks and sticks:
And it struck me that these people have essentially returned to the stone age. Put skins instead of woven fabric on them, and they would fit right in with a group pulling down a mastadon.
What was interesting to me about that video was that it obviously wasn't their cow, and they had no interest in the reality that they were stealing someone else's property, that this cow (looked like a bull to me) could sire other cows if left alive, that this cow might be able to pull a plow to grow food, could haul firewood and carts, could turn a grindstone, could even turn a generator. In short -- this cow is an amazing, marvelous machine.
But all those folks could see was food. No plan for the future. No thought about tomorrow, no concern for what you do to society when you side with the part of society that has decided that stealing someone else's property is justified if you "need" it. Nope. All they see is "food right here right now." Today I eat. I'll worry about tomorrow tomorrow.
And that is how the person you were debating sees businesses and individuals, and how the leaders they vote for see them as well. When they see an individual or a business, they don't see a marvelous machine that can yield amazing benefits if left alone. They don't care if they grind businesses into the ground through taxation, or prevent the formation of new businesses through punitive taxation and regulation, or cause people to move away through punitive taxation, or drive wealth underground to avoid punitive taxation. They don't see businesses and society as an emergent, unfolding fractal flower, as a process of self organizing complexity that develops in exponential fashion. They don't see the gains that they won't get if they eat the seed corn today.
Nope. All they see is a business cow or rich person cow wandering around alone and unguarded in a field. So they surround it with rocks and sticks, outnumber it, and beat it senseless so they can eat it.
Intellectually they are still in the stone age. They aren't builders. They are voracious consumers. They have no interest in or capacity to consider the system they are building. All they know is today they eat, and they will worry about tomorrow tomorrow.
What an excellent comment. This could be a stand-alone post in and of itself. Thank you, @gwiss. You’ve laid it all out right here in an articulate, powerful, concise, and effective way.
I couldn’t agree more.
Cheers for this.
Thanks KafkA! Your articles usually stimulate my thought process, so team effort. Voluntary community building at its best!
Beautifully stated. Civilization will all its wealth and machinery has still not progressed much spiritually, intellectually, or morally.
I really hope that we can get some privacy here so that it becomes impractical for governments to extort from us.
Right now governments have no idea of how to tax this stuff, and they don't want people making too much money off of it so they're discouraging the use of it through draconian and unintelligible tax laws. Instead of treating it like stocks, which is what most people trading it are doing, and having you pay as you cash out, they're trying to micro regulate. And, like you said, that's f*ing ridiculous. Even in the US things have gotten hella ridiculous. Taking taxes on profits of each trade, and then completely discounting the loses ($3k? wtf?). Best idea would just be to move to a country that doesn't regulate like a jerk.
Given that taxation laws appear designed to be impractical, there is no simple solution here. They seem to want us breaking one of their many laws. There doesn't appear to be any effort on their part to make it simple or effective (and no thief ever would).
Not an answer to your question, so no SBD for me, but just my thoughts.
Agree 100%
Tax obligations! Obligations to who? A criminal system?
What a cock!
I don't have an answer for you however your interaction with this fool just goes to show how brainwashed some folks are.
Mate you are on fire today, what is it 4 posts? Good going Graham, I've just done one and that's me done for a few days as keeping up with comments and follows take up the time, and I do this at work! 😂
Steem on buddy.
Haha. Those were my thoughts exactly.
Yeah, man. Steemin’ on as usual😊. So much to keep up on and chew on and see/say/learn/ and do.
Glad you mentioned your post! The voting ritual is another all day kinda thing, and I don’t like missing the important ones!
Cheers man.
The simple solution here would be for all countries to implement a "Fair Tax" system instead, this way, shit won't be so confusing, and everyone will pay taxes, not just the honest folks.
The taxation is the only impractical thing.
hey bro. i talked about you here
https://steemit.com/peacefulparenting/@emancipatedhuman/peaceful-parenting-or-smith-family
Cheers, Luis! Up-a-ma-steemified!
I think it's the tax systems that is impractical,
get rid of it 😆
Are you sure you weren't just talking to a government troll? I mean, I've known and met a lot of people in my life and have had many conversations but not once have I ever heard anyone be so gung ho about "tax obligations".
If a law is ridiculously hard to implement, abide to, or understand, then it's a stupid law and should probably just be ignored.
Lol. Good point. One never knows. Could definitely be a troll.