[akerro]

So Bitcoin is officially money now?

[xxpor]

Has been since 2013 as far as FinCEN is concerned: https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/FIN-2013-G...

[AndrewDucker]

Common methods of laundering money have included art and soap. Neither of those are money. Except insofar as many medium of exchange is.

[wmf]

It's whatever they want it to be. To FinCEN it's money. To IRS it's property.

[gamblor956]

No, it's still money to the IRS as well, just like any currency that isn't USD.

However, the tax code treats all non-USD currencies as assets for the purposes of determining when taxable events occur (as a result of differences in the exchange rate between the time the currency was acquired and when it was transacted away).

For example, you acquire 100 GBP for $100 or 10 Bitcoin for $100. Then sometime later, you buy a car for $100 but pay for it with 90 GBP or 8 Bitcoin. There are two transactions: the non-taxable acquisition of the car, and the deemed exchange of the GBP or Bitcoin into USD. Because the GBP and Bitcoin are worth more now than when you first acquired them, you have foreign exchange income and get taxed on that.

[cft]

Then it should be treated by IRS as foreign currency (with transactions under $200 exempt from reporting). Now it's treated as property, where you have to report every transaction on sched D, even buying a coffee for $2.

[X6S1x6Okd1st]

It doesn't need to be money to be used for money laundering.

[hcknwscommenter]

No. Accepting US dollars, "converting" those dollars into bitcoin, performing a mixing operation for the express purpose to make it difficult to track where those dollars went, and then sending back something worth the U.S. dollars you accepted (minus a fee), is money laundering.

[jayd16]

Pretty sure you could be "laundering money" with any sort of asset.