from Hacker News

Found a heap of BTC. What do I do?

by kevinmannix on 7/11/17, 8:46 PM with 20 comments

  • by 0xbear on 7/11/17, 10:37 PM

    Hire an accountant to walk you through the tax implications. If this is taxed as income you could benefit from unloading it gradually. Once you unload it, do the following things:

    1. Pay off your high interest debts (don't pay off mortgage - it's nearly always a bad idea once you run the numbers) 2. Put the rest into a super low cost Vanguard s&p500 fund or etf like VOO or VFIAX and forget about it for the next 30 years. 3. Retire in style.

  • by georgeecollins on 7/11/17, 10:27 PM

    I don't know how the top answer said there are no strict rules for bitcoin. I edited that, but in case it gets edited back:

    https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/irs-virtual-currency-guidan...

    In this case it would be subject to capital gains tax.

  • by runamok on 7/11/17, 10:38 PM

    Most importantly backup that hard drive!

  • by nodesocket on 7/12/17, 1:35 AM

    I'm sorry, but I'm extremely skeptical of this. All too often people on the internet like to lie just to generate buzz or troll. This smells of BS.

    Similar: "I found 400 bitcoin on a thumb drive laying on the street in Manhattan. What should I do?"

  • by jamestimmins on 7/12/17, 1:07 AM

    If OP is the individual who asked the original question, this may be a case of closing the barn door after the horse has already run away, but it's probably unwise to post under a real name or a frequently-used pseudonym. I suspect people have been targeted for far less $$/btc than this.

  • by warsharks on 7/11/17, 9:25 PM

    surely you can just cash them in, as far as im aware no one has been done for legitimately owning and selling bitcoin, i could be wrong of course and i have no idea about the US tax system.

    i dont think it would exactly be fair to punish anyone for doing it, its not like people get taught what to do if a life changing amount of cash came their way. if it were me id have cashed em in already and be flying off on holiday! (well you could just do that with bitcoin of course)

    also maybe consider saving some, the investment has paid off so far why not let it ride? (not all of it of course)

  • by sunstone on 7/12/17, 9:29 PM

    Melt them down for the gold.