RE: Steem Taxes
Thank you for a thoughtful and gracious response.
However, it is clear that we obviously disagree, possibly irreconcilably. I do admire men like Simon Black who seem to have managed great success while "avoiding" taxation for the most part.
Self sacrificing or not, I do expect everyone to be moral, not to rob me, and not to support those who do. In my considered opinion, the tax code is an irredeemable monstrosity. However, for those who have studied it, it does have significant and considerable loopholes that are exploited by the wealthy and wise.
At the most fundamental level, "tax codes" and the crooks - call them congressmen or whatever you care to - who promulgate them - bear no relationship to "law" whatsoever. "Legalizing" evil is an oxymoron. I don't care how many "legislators" sign a document purporting to legalize theft, or how many judges and cops "enforce" such theft, it is still immoral robbery. The entire lot of them "just doing their jobs" are the criminals. I also find it difficult to respect those who empower them with their tacit approval.
The driving force behind the development of Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, and blockchain based distributed organizations, is the hope of wresting immoral power out of the hands of governments. Devising ways to tax these developments is like fastening boat anchors to jet aircraft. Go ahead and do so for yourself if you must, but I'll be leaving those impediments off of mine...
Idealist vs realist perspective
I cannot argue on the basis of moral and immoral. I can only argue on the grounds of risk reduction, safety, smart decisions which have a higher probability of predictable outcomes. This is no different than with investing where some people are willing to bet their life savings on a particular cryptocurrency and let the chips fall while others choose to never take such a crazy risk.
Neither of these individuals are wrong. Each individual has to decide for themselves which risks are worth taking, which investment strategy they believe is likely to work for them and to achieve their goals. The only thing I state in my comment is that if your goal is to keep your money and avoid jail then compliance is really the only behavior pattern which leads to predictable desired behavior from the law enforcers. It's possible to go the route of non-compliance but then the behavior of the law enforces can become unpredictable and uncertainties can arise. If the goal is to be happy and enjoy your wealth, if you manage to acquire property, then having to look over your shoulder and be paranoid is not aligned with that for most people.
Taxes are unavoidable
Taxes cannot be avoided no matter how we feel about the entities taxing us. If the US government did not exist there would still be taxes and the only difference would be who you're paying the taxes to. In what part of the world are there no taxes at all? Even in Afghanistan the Taliban taxes the farmers, and in any civilization, society, or large group, there is a strong tendency for there to emerge a system of taxes also known as fees for protection. The shop owner would be paying the local gang if not the IRS. If it has to be paid (even Jesus Christ admitted that), then paying gives peace of mind.
I posted in my blog just recently that the smartest tactic is to contact our congressmen and let's get our representatives to reduce the risks on Steemit account holders. To start we could reduce the complexity of the tax code so that only exchange into fiat is a taxable event and all crypto to crypto trades non-taxable. This would allow the industry to thrive and go mainstream (compliance is required for mainstream adoption), and you can promote a lot of security, freedom, and happiness, if you have adoption. If you take a hard line radical approach you never get mainstream adoption and the majority of people will never benefit from your toy, and just think about how the Internet would have been if it never made it out of the university level of awareness?
For the record, I think a lot of the laws are unfair, I think the tax code is impossible for an ordinary human to understand, but I recognize that the laws are real, they can effect my life, the tax code is real and can effect my life, and these are risks to be mitigated and compliance is the cheapest option for the vast majority of people (myself included).
References
Thank you again for your interesting, comprehensive, and gracious responses. :)
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