The IRS is looking to identify all Coinbase users from 2013-2015 who transacted in Bitcoin. Coinbase is the largest Bitcoin exchange in the US.
Last Thursday we reported that in a startling development seeking to breach the privacy veil of users of America’s largest bitcoin exchange, the IRS filed court papers seeking a judicial order to serve a so-called “John Doe” summons on the San Francisco-based Bitcoin platform Coinbase.
The government’s request is part of a bitcoin tax-evasion probe, and seeks to identify all Coinbase users in the U.S. who “conducted transactions in a convertible virtual currency” from 2013 to 2015.
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IRS is targeting transaction records of Coinbase users: case is 16-cv-06658, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
What makes a “John Doe” unique, is that it represents a special “shotgun” form of summons to look for tax evaders that allows the IRS to obtain information about all taxpayers in a group or class of people, even if the agency doesn’t know their identities. The IRS has deployed the tactic in its recent crackdown on undeclared offshore accounts.
In other words, the US government’s crackdown on local bitcoin users has begun.