Man, this is a great question, and one I'm working on also. Keep in mind, I'm not a CPA or a tax lawyer - and this is definitely not tax advice - I truly have no idea if I am doing this right...
So far, the best source of day by day payouts from steem - which for tax purposes I think is the first big question - what was that days payout and at what value for the currency - is to go to steemdb for your account, click activity, and then rewards. I cross-referenced that list with steemd.com and I can confirm it does correctly measure back to my first post payout of any significance.
My plan right now is to manually enter those payouts into https://bitcoin.tax - which seems capable of putting together pretty detailed break down of all the steemit based income you bring in, on a transaction by transaction basis - albeit with you manually entering every payout. Plus, and I've been testing this, they must connect to some historic price database automatically based on the currency you chose, because I did a test and entered two quantities of earned steem on two different dates and got two wildly different quantities. Unfortunately, the only way to know if they're accurate is to cross reference a historic price chart yourself I guess...
As far as what you're asking for - a snapshot of your total steem currencies on a given date, I'm not even sure that's particularly relevant. The only thing that matters really is when you get new steemit related currency from a payout - that moment is income at the current value of the currency you paid out in - and then the moments when you trade that currency for USD - or possibly for other crypto currency?
For that trade info you would want whatever record you got from the intermediary you used - poloniex, bittrex, blocktrades - whatever.
This is all a huge hassle for sure, and some people just seem to be circumventing it by paying upon trading only. I don't think it's 100% clear which approach is 100% compliant - but I have a feeling that anyone making a good faith effort will be heads and shoulders above the chunk of folks who truly have no intention of trying..
Sorry, I know this was somewhat opaque as an answer - and that's because there is no super clear answer for what the IRS seems to want as a tax system for this - and, as I brought up basically my first day here on steemit, the lack of an export cv function in the main UI makes it infinitely harder.
But, it is also ripe for third party app development. You are, of course, correct that it is all right there in the blockchain, waiting to be connected to historic daily price averages, and simply exported for a given user. No reason a place like this shouldn't have a single button tax regimen. But I'm not capable of programming that I'm afraid.
A possible method would be going to Steemdb.com and go to author rewards. It has your daily rewards listed. You may be able to copy the data to a spread sheet for easy math. Only thing I can think of that would come close to what you want.
Maybe that would be something @jesta could add to steemdb, kinda a ytd of each for the account?
ergh, yeah, I don't think that'd be sufficient for my needs.
perhaps if I made zero withdrawals last year, that'd work. but it'd be a fucking headache otherwise, having to add up all the rewards for 2016, and then deduct all the transfers out to generate that balance for January 1, 2017.
Correct me if I'm wrong but don't you only need to pay taxes when you sell/realize gains in USD?
If you're looking to record your account value for gains/losses in 2018 I think your best bet would be taking a screenshot of your wallet. Would you count the week's pending rewards for 2017 taxes or 2018?
reference my reply to @dber above, as it has alot of detail in it relevant to this.
There's the component of taxes on income - which would equate to direct rewards - and then the capital gains/losses.
As I'm seeing it, it's a rather complicated challenge - for some of the reasons mentioned above, and which @lexiconical spelt out well in his series, also linked above.
Man, this is a great question, and one I'm working on also. Keep in mind, I'm not a CPA or a tax lawyer - and this is definitely not tax advice - I truly have no idea if I am doing this right...
So far, the best source of day by day payouts from steem - which for tax purposes I think is the first big question - what was that days payout and at what value for the currency - is to go to steemdb for your account, click activity, and then rewards. I cross-referenced that list with steemd.com and I can confirm it does correctly measure back to my first post payout of any significance.
My plan right now is to manually enter those payouts into https://bitcoin.tax - which seems capable of putting together pretty detailed break down of all the steemit based income you bring in, on a transaction by transaction basis - albeit with you manually entering every payout. Plus, and I've been testing this, they must connect to some historic price database automatically based on the currency you chose, because I did a test and entered two quantities of earned steem on two different dates and got two wildly different quantities. Unfortunately, the only way to know if they're accurate is to cross reference a historic price chart yourself I guess...
As far as what you're asking for - a snapshot of your total steem currencies on a given date, I'm not even sure that's particularly relevant. The only thing that matters really is when you get new steemit related currency from a payout - that moment is income at the current value of the currency you paid out in - and then the moments when you trade that currency for USD - or possibly for other crypto currency?
For that trade info you would want whatever record you got from the intermediary you used - poloniex, bittrex, blocktrades - whatever.
This is all a huge hassle for sure, and some people just seem to be circumventing it by paying upon trading only. I don't think it's 100% clear which approach is 100% compliant - but I have a feeling that anyone making a good faith effort will be heads and shoulders above the chunk of folks who truly have no intention of trying..
Sorry, I know this was somewhat opaque as an answer - and that's because there is no super clear answer for what the IRS seems to want as a tax system for this - and, as I brought up basically my first day here on steemit, the lack of an export cv function in the main UI makes it infinitely harder.
But, it is also ripe for third party app development. You are, of course, correct that it is all right there in the blockchain, waiting to be connected to historic daily price averages, and simply exported for a given user. No reason a place like this shouldn't have a single button tax regimen. But I'm not capable of programming that I'm afraid.
I'm afraid that I can't help you with that, but would also like to find out about it, so glad you have asked that question.
A possible method would be going to Steemdb.com and go to author rewards. It has your daily rewards listed. You may be able to copy the data to a spread sheet for easy math. Only thing I can think of that would come close to what you want.
Maybe that would be something @jesta could add to steemdb, kinda a ytd of each for the account?
ergh, yeah, I don't think that'd be sufficient for my needs.
perhaps if I made zero withdrawals last year, that'd work. but it'd be a fucking headache otherwise, having to add up all the rewards for 2016, and then deduct all the transfers out to generate that balance for January 1, 2017.
Correct me if I'm wrong but don't you only need to pay taxes when you sell/realize gains in USD?
If you're looking to record your account value for gains/losses in 2018 I think your best bet would be taking a screenshot of your wallet. Would you count the week's pending rewards for 2017 taxes or 2018?
reference my reply to @dber above, as it has alot of detail in it relevant to this.
There's the component of taxes on income - which would equate to direct rewards - and then the capital gains/losses.
As I'm seeing it, it's a rather complicated challenge - for some of the reasons mentioned above, and which @lexiconical spelt out well in his series, also linked above.
And a valuable tool to throw in the mix, regardless of the specific strategies you may decide upon: @steemreports' Steem Financial Accounts Tool