On Oct. 9, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released revenue ruling (Rev. Rul. 2019-24) and a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document, which provide additional guidance on the tax treatment and reporting obligations for transactions involving virtual currency (also known as cryptocurrency). This guidance supplements the original guidance that was issued in 2014 in the form of a notice (Notice 2014-21), which provides a baseline rule that cryptocurrency is property for federal income tax purposes.

Rev. Rul. 2019-24 addresses questions related to the tax treatment of hard forks. The revenue ruling describes a hard fork as a protocol change that results in a permanent split of a new distributive ledger from a legacy or existing distributed ledger, resulting in the creation of a new cryptocurrency on the new distributed ledger in addition to the legacy cryptocurrency on the legacy distributed ledger. 
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In a significant step forward for the cryptocurrency industry, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued its first “no-action” letter (NAL) to a U.S.-based company using utility tokens created for
Continue Reading SEC Issues ‘No-Action’ Letters Allowing Sales of Utility Tokens

On June 7, 2017, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled “Flood Insurance Reform: A Taxpayer’s Perspective.” The hearing examined the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and
Continue Reading U.S. House Financial Services Committee Hearing on Flood Insurance Reform and Passes Legislation