Taxing Blockchain Forks

Abstract

The tax treatment of cryptocurrency forks presents four unique challenges: parent/child designation, taxpayer access to the new token, assessment of fair market value, and assessment of comparable contemporaneous fair market values. We provide empirical evidence that each of these issues is a hurdle in determining whether income has been realized, or in apportioning the basis. We consider three existing approaches for assets acquired without a purchase. We conclude that the least problematic approach (adopted by Japan) is giving zero tax basis to the new coin and taxing the proceeds upon a sale, while treating the new coin as realized income (as recently ruled in the US) is the most problematic.

Keywords: taxation, cryptocurrency, fork, split, blockchain, distributed ledger

JEL Classification: H20, H21, H24, H29