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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   3795 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 2, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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First: Congrats, it's awesome to hear about someone recovering a cold wallet like this. I still love telling the story of my friend who frittered away 100 BTC from around 2011 before its biggest jump.

Second, how sure are you that you want to report all of this to the tax administration? If the amount was less than six figures, I would try to purchase goods in BTC slowly over the years.

Thanks!

Hypothetically, what goods could I buy with it without running afoul of some KYC or other reporting?

Could probably use a decentralized exchange of some sort to swap it into stables and then various ways of getting it into physical USD.

Stables? Stablecoins?

Physical USD won't help me.

And how could I trust the exchange? One of them just disappeared and stole my coins once.

A decentralized exchange is relatively low-trust since you just use it to convert and don't deposit. Uniswap the most popular example.

How would physical cash not assist? Likely easier to slowly convert that into your preferred currency than raw BTC

My country doesn't really use cash anymore. I wouldn't be able to spend it all without raising suspicion.

I think we're running into confusion about what a "not a life-changing amount" actually means. Can you get rid of 5 figures in cash eventually?

Foreign purchases under the customs limit are always a safe bet for using coins, it seems like.

We don't have a customs limit for foreign purchases, everything gets a hefty VAT and a declaration fee. Spending it in cash would take a very long time.

I'm gonna go the "just tax my crypto when I sell" route.

I'm starting to hope it's enough money to buy you foreign citizenship somewhere

More comments

I'm not an expert in this space by any means - I divested of crypto precisely because of the additional controls that landed on "easy" platforms, since someone not watching and taxing my transactions was a major part of the appeal.

I think it would depend a lot on where you live. I'd create a plan with multiple types of goods and the laws around selling your own personal property (imagine my eyes rolling here).

At the end of it, you may find the juice isn't worth the squeeze, and that's a valid answer. There's a reason why the people who are best at tax minimization strategies are generally dealing with 7+ figures. If it's a huge PITA to keep your own money, you may end up just choosing to cede it through taxes. After all, that's what these systems of punishment and enforcement are designed to do....

Right. I'm gonna stay on the straight and narrow.

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