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You don't want a tax deduction for your losses? (Note, crypto is still a bit of a gray area. If you were holding crypto for personal use -- like buying and selling stuff -- losses are not deductible. If you were holding it for investment purposes, losses are deductible against other gains and partially against other income.)
Most of the time, you won't run into a problem by not deducting losses. However, if by not deducting a loss, you qualify for some benefit that you would not qualify for if you did deduct the loss, not deducting the loss could be considered tax fraud.
Also, there could be a bit of a question about whether a particular loss is a business loss or theft. Theft losses are not deductible unless due to a federally declared disaster, like a wildfire or hurricane. If the exchange failed because it was a badly run but otherwise legitimate business, then you could deduct your capital losses (if the assets were held for investment). But if you lost money because the whole scheme was intentional theft (like a rug pull), that's not deductible regardless of whether the crypto was held for investment or for personal use.
For, me, it was only maybe a few thousand. Seems like a huge headache and would rather just accept that I lost what I did. I just want to know if it is legal and okay with the IRS to do so. They did give me a partial payment via Paypal in the form of BTC and ETH.
https://smartasset.com/taxes/do-you-have-to-report-capital-losses
there is also the question of what you would use as their tax basis if and when you sell the BTC and ETH.
@Mike9241 wrote:
https://smartasset.com/taxes/do-you-have-to-report-capital-losses
there is also the question of what you would use as their tax basis if and when you sell the BTC and ETH.
I think that is the best argument to report the loss. If you don't report the loss, then you don't have a paper trail to establish the basis of the BTC and ETH, which you will absolutely need to have if you sell those at a profit.
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