In USA, IRS Training Agents to Find & Seize Bitcoin Wallets

[wry]

I know Stake blocks users from the USA, so this may not apply to many of you, but I found this news story really chilling for my crypto friends who live in the USA.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had one of its power point presentations, called a "deck", leaked that showed it was training agents to find Bitcoin wallets.  How would they do this?  By subpoenaing Apple, Google and Microsoft to give up the information of anyone who had downloaded Bitcoin related software. I guess they think they can then use that to lock down an IP and find you.

I am a big fan of Bitcoin and believe in paying any taxes that I owe, but this seems remarkably invasive to me.  It's not like they track everyone's bank account, though of course they can subpoena bank information if you are suspected of not paying taxes.

Apparently they also routinely scan social media for crypto links, so for those of you in the USA, you may want to hold off on future Twitter contests that require you to retweet Stake content.  

Am I over reacting?  I can't tell if this is just for people who are already under criminal investigation or if it's basically everyone.

Link to story that includes a link to the actual "deck":  https://www.coindesk.com/irs-confirms-it-trained-staff-on-finding-crypto-wallets

[williamshennie9]

I don't think you are over reacting. I think it is a matter of authorities trying to bring some type of regulation to the industry, which they should not do in my opinion. Taxes will always be tricky with crypto.

[polor12]

so they are trying to use former hackers. right.. computer people to hack the wallets... that is invasion of privacy.. they can't regulate that it. let them train. and search for the wallets. what the worse then can do.. know your wallet address.. they dont know who owns it. or even get into the wallet.. 12 words will stop them.. no rules  or laws were broken.. so they really can't do anything..

[Enzo]

I agree %100 with you. This is super invasive and should not be allowed by any means. But given the US presidents standing on crypto currency. It does not surprise me that this is happening at all.

[Etude]

Woah this sounds like a pretty serious thing to be engaged by the IRS to train agents in how to find and seize Bitcoin wallets.

[defrostbyte]

This doesn't really surprise me to be honest. It's the IRS. They're probably only looking at people that used to pay large amounts of taxes every year and suddenly have stopped. They are already over 4 years behind on the majority of their work, so I can't imagine they would be looking into every individual person. Still, it is a major invasion of privacy for US Citizens... Oh, wait, what privacy? The US has been collecting information from people's cellphone's and computers for years, claiming it's for the "Safety of the People". pffft. 

[BLXN]

Oh, shit They're coming for all the property people aren't paying taxes on! Disturbing news -- perhaps it's time for many of the folk south of the Canadian border to consider cold storage, and a new IP.

[bmg]

I found this article to be  very interesting.  It cracks me up how shady the US government is as in the  United States  government are a bunch of ding dongs in my opinion.

But one thing will always be true .. 2 guarantees in life are death and yep, you guessed it ..Taxes!