What's it going to cost me?
I can only speak from a UK perspective but I'm fairly certain that the US taxation of crypto works in the same way. Cryptocurrency is treated as property in the UK & US.
The tax that applies here in the UK is 'Capital Gains Tax' Essentially you pay the difference between the price of acquiring the property and the price you sold it for.
Example
If you purchased 1000 Steem for $1.00 and then sold those Steem for $1.84 your gain would be $840. You would pay the tax on the gain only, minus any relevant deductions.
In the UK, if you have no other income then technically you can make £11,500 in gains tax free, after which 10% and 20% tax rates apply.
At 10% you're liable to pay $84 and 20% $164.
Gray Area
Steemit allows you to, technically, generate Steem from nothing. I'm not sure how this would be treated when it comes to declaring your liability as it takes effort/work to create posts.
My general feeling toward this is that you could use the opportunity cost as a deduction i.e you take the time it takes to create a post against what you would usually earn in the same time at your usual employment.
Example
If your job pays $20 an hour and it takes you 30 mins to create a post that earns $40 then your gain should be $30.
Disclaimer
I'm not a tax adviser, I've done some study around the topic for a qualification in financial advice and have used current tax legislation as research for this post. I recommend speaking with a qualified professional before submitting a tax return!
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