The U.S. Treasury on Thursday unveiled an outline of how it intends to address America's vast so-called "Tax Gap" by funding a  multi-year, "nearly US$80 billion rebuilding" of the IRS; boosting tax compliance by increasing personal and business financial account reporting; and increasing its regulation of paid tax preparers.

The last few weeks have seen the price of Bitcoin soar, accompanied by a roar of commentary from those who see it, and other cryptocurrencies, as the future.  

This latest round of Bitcoin mania was kicked off earlier this month, when (Bitcoin fan) Elon Musk's car company, Tesla, announced in an SEC filing that it had bought US$1.5bn worth of the cryptocurrency, and that it would also begin accepting Bitcoin in payment for its products... 

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has issued long-anticipated guidance on how Americans should report their cryptocurrency assets and transactions, and included details of a new "checkbox" that taxpayers must consider when filling out their 1040s.

Will a 'hard fork' result in gross income, and a reporting obligation for the U.S. taxpayer owner of the virtual currency subject to that 'fork'?

As reported, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service recently released some long-anticipated guidance on this and other questions, addressing how those subject to U.S. taxation should report their cryptocurrency assets and transactions.

Here, Joe Gill – a New York-based managing director in Andersen's U.S. National Tax office – shares his thoughts on the latest IRS guidance...

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has begun sending "educational letters" to U.S. taxpayers who have been engaging in "virtual currency transactions" and whom it says either "potentially failed to report income and pay the resulting tax" they were seen to owe on certain of these virtual currency transactions, or failed to "report their transactions properly."