When the Remedy's More Destructive Than Disease

The U.S. government once again proved that it does foolish and destructive things by trying to impose a tax that actually loses money. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demanded information from a San Francisco bitcoin exchange about who was buying and selling bitcoins. The IRS claims that bitcoins and other digital/cryptocurrencies are property and thus subject to a capital gains tax on any price increases and other reporting requirements when bitcoin is used in transactions. It seems that the IRS discovered that in 2015 only 802 people declared bitcoin-related losses or gains, despite tens of millions of transactions (I am willing to bet that most of these folks reported losses, which are deducible).