Paying the piper

It's been a while since I've done much trading; it's not something I have the time for and I don't keep fully up to date with the fluctuations so it's difficult to make (potentially) good decisions. I have a look now and then, set some buys and sells, try to get a read on the markets, and move on pretty quickly knowing I'm probably missing out on some gains. It is what it is.

I'm in a Discord group with a few other Hive people, it's a private group where much gets said that can't see the light of day on the Blockchain and it's a lot of fun although there's a serious side to it as we discuss things including market fluctuations and expectations, so I'm never too far from the right information, just several hours behind, or in front, considering time differences between the six people in the group. So, I'm not clueless about the markets, just time-poor so I can't trade as much as I like.

Not long ago there was some talk around cashing out a portion of holdings and the tax implications of that. I've written posts about this in the past as I investigated how things stand in Australia and what it might look like for me considering I hold a reasonable amount of crypto. I concluded that it's going to look fucked because I'll loose a lot to tax should I cash out...I have no plans of doing that currently but will in the future so losing some to tax sucks; still, I'll get a lot of fiat currency in my pocket so it's not all bad.

So many people stick their head in the sand when it comes to taxation on cryptocurrency and that's certainly one way to go...it might work in third world countries (where nothing else works), although I'm not so sure it will work out well even in under-developed countries, however in developed countries it's a thing whether people want to admit it or not. Sure, there maybe a place or two where governments impose no tax on crypto but they're few and I think they'll catch on eventually...so, it's going to be an issue for most of us; I believe that wholeheartedly.

I've seen people brag about how they don't pay tax but have wondered what's going to happen when it's time to pay the piper, meaning they get caught up with. Yet others say, I'm never going to withdraw any, and that's fine...but capital gains tax applies to gains made in exchanges as well, not just on crypto brought out in fiat currency (I know because I had to pay it) and with exchanges taking passport and drivers license verifications there's not much scope to hide from it. I think bragging is a cunt-act in the first place but bragging about getting away with something a person doesn't even understand is simply dumb. Oh well, time will straighten it all out I suppose.

Is taxation, in respect of cryptocurrency, something that's on your radar or do you prefer the blissfully-unaware-head-in-the-sand approach? Either way, there's going to be implications down the track, to think there'll not be is naïve in the extreme.