The Canada Revenue Agency (the Canadian equivalent of the IRS) just issued its first release on how it will treat virtual currencies for taxation purposes. There is not much new here — the CRA sent an e-mail to the CBC back in April about bitcoin taxation — and the government leaves several questions unanswered. Still, it’s an actual release from the CRA and not just a communication to a news outlet, which is helpful to those advising taxpayers. And even though the interpretation bulletins and the release do not have force of law, this communication does at least put up some signposts about the CRA’s thinking about bitcoin.
The release — styled one of the CRA’s fact sheets on “digital currency” — is available here.
For whatever reason, don’t ask me to explain, I’ve started looking back through some of the 300-or-so unpublished posts in Pokerati’s drafts folder. LOL. I found the one pasted below, from early ’07 as I got caught up in the Neteller money grab. No clue why I never pressed publish … I think it was because I wanted to do more research to support a theory about CIA interest in the Muslim-world’s gold-backed e-dinar and/or find a picture of a cartoon terrorist.
But really, takes you back, doesn’t it? I would, of course, get my $520 before year-end — no interest though from the Feds for holding it. And the return of Neteller money back in ’07 is a reason many give for their confidence in some day getting repaid by Full Tilt. But when I look back at that case — though Neteller was in many ways the opening salvo in the US fight to shut down the online poker industry — I frankly see why the current round of money seizures are very different, and thus why repayment via Full Tilt is far less likely than the government’s eventual release of Neteller funds.
Looking back at this post, and the original article it was gonna link to, does remind me about issues of virtual currency that the world is still trying to resolve. We couldn’t know it at the time, but what we’re seeing now started out with poker players getting caught up in something that was about way more than poker:
We thought it was a big deal when PokerStars got T-pain for a night, and then a bigger deal when they brought in @SnoopDogg for a party that certainly won’t be one-upped at this year’s WSOP … but what’s the point with Lady Gaga becoming a farmer?
In many ways it’s a disheartening reminder of what Phil Hellmuth can never be … and possibly indicative of poker’s future direction. Say what you will about the struggling American family farm, clearly there’s more money in virtual harvesting than poker, and hence the biggest name in poker (as far as Google is concerned) — and the most powerful celebrity in the world thanks in part to a song talking about poker — has moved beyond Texas Hold’em to sign with Farmville — and the parent company of the biggest online poker site.
Implications are clear … Zynga is planning to take over American agriculture by introducing poker players to the concept that money can indeed grow on trees. It should play great with the kids (who love Lady Gaga).
At a minimum you can see how Zynga’s at least thinking along the similar lines as Caesars:
