{"id":28890,"date":"2014-04-02T02:30:26","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T02:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe64e00626c3"},"modified":"2014-04-02T02:30:26","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T02:30:26","slug":"irs-changes-course-declares-bitcoin-currency-1396405826","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/irs-changes-course-declares-bitcoin-currency-1396405826","title":{"rendered":"IRS Changes Course and Declares Bitcoin a Currency"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a stunning reversal of intent, the IRS today issued a statement admitting they got it wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter further review, and speaking to our consulting organization led by new Treasury Secretary Jack Lew<\/a>, we\u2019ve decided that bitcoin acts more like a currency after all.\u201d This was greeted with celebration at multiple companies which have been taking a harsh stance on the IRS\u2019s previous declarations.<\/p>\n

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne issued a statement from a \u201cFreedom Rally\u201d that \u201cAlthough the IRS has been used as adangerous weapon<\/a> against the Libertarian movement and has repeatedly shown hostile actions without legal recourse for Americans, \u201cOnce in a while they get one right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agents in Police jackets labeled with IRS were seen taking several leaders from the peaceful rally into custody. When asked about the actions, two agents who declined to reveal their names as they were not authorized to speak to the press only admitted, \u201cHey we just do what we\u2019re told.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked to comment about the change in the IRS stance, former IRS leader \u201cLois Lerner\u201d refused to answer questions and again invoked her Fifth Amendment rightagainst self-incrimination<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jack Lew admitted he had some influence in the decision and had just needed more time since his new role to head Treasury Department has just begun. \u201cI just finished hanging myportrait<\/a> of Barack Obama in my office and the new paint in the office renovation hasn\u2019t even dried. I think the fumes of the wet paint might have led to the premature decision to treat the currency only as property.\u201d The Treasury Secretary left open the possibility that they may change their mind again. \u201cNever say Never,\u201d he was quoted as saying when asked if this decision would be final.<\/p>\n

The division of government known asFinCEN<\/a> left open the possibility that they too might declare an official stance of how they intend to view bitcoin. According to Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery, \u201cWe still don\u2019t know what to call it. Sometimes we say it\u2019s a Virtual currency, but we\u2019ve been told it\u2019s more like a Digital currency. Sometimes we call it a Cyber Currency \u2013 then other times we mention it is a Crypto Currency. Our official stance will be decided once we have a four square block drawn in chalk in the board room and release the chicken to decide which block to rest in = Whatever the chicken decides, we\u2019ll do. Because of the four options, the usual method of Paper, Rock Scissors wouldn\u2019t have worked,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n

There is still no word whether the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has declared bitcoin a commodity or currency. The Acting Chief Economist Sayee Srinivasan declared, \u201cWe still see ourselves in charge of the blockchain. We have a saying here \u2013 \u2018If you can mine it, we can regulate it.\u2019 So it is clearly our office responsibility to make that claim, and we clearly see ourselves in charge of it, no matter what the IRS says.\u201d Although a SWAT team of IRS enforcement officers was standing in attendance during our interview, there are still some negotiations taking place between agencies. He would neither confirm nor deny that negotiations between federal agencies would ultimately be decided by \u201cIndian Leg Wrestle<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing is for sure is that for this week probably it will remain a property. At least until Thursday when the final round of \u2018Negotiation matches\u2019 are scheduled to conclude,\u201d he was quoted on the topic. When alerted of the IRS announcement of the reversal today, he smiled and told us any announcements before Thursday would not be the final word. \u201cSince bitcoin hasn\u2019t existed in our books until this year, we\u2019ve got to settle things the old fashioned way, two out of three. We are much more civilized since thedueling days<\/a> of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a stunning reversal of intent, the IRS today issued a statement admitting they got it wrong. \u201cAfter further review, and speaking to our consulting organization led by new Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, we\u2019ve decided that bitcoin acts more like a currency after all.\u201d This was greeted with celebration at multiple companies which have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3626,"featured_media":28889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[576,1224,3503],"class_list":{"0":"post-28890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-currency","9":"tag-irs","10":"tag-patrick-byrne"},"author_data":{"id":3626,"name":"Mark Rees","nicename":"mark-rees","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/mark-rees-promo-image-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/irs-changes-course-and-declares-bitcoin-a-currency.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}