Just placed a bid on a project. Didn't realize till after placing it that the message would be publicly accessible. There's no mention of this on the bid page nor is there any way to edit the message after the fact. Both of these sound like issues that should be addressed.
Other than that I like the idea. Although, the only reason I can think of why a developer would use btcworkers rather than your USD counterparts would be for anonymity (read: avoid paying income tax). What are the other benefits to being paid in bitcoins?
Other than that I like the idea. Although, the only reason I can think of why a developer would use btcworkers rather than your USD counterparts would be for anonymity (read: avoid paying income tax). What are the other benefits to being paid in bitcoins?
I think you know this, but perhaps not all readers do: you still are actually required to pay tax on earnings in BTC - just not declaring the income is illegal (and the authorities _are_ likely to notice if you're making a large amount of it and converting it back to your home currency to spend).
Good point. But I would argue that receiving payment in BTC makes it easier to illegally not declare the income. Now that you can pay for all kinds of products and services using BTC there's no need to convert it to another currency first. The only way to trace it would be if the employer filed a 1099, which they're still incentivized to do in order to write the payment off as a cost instead of profit.
Hypothetically, what if you only bartered and never used 'money'? Would you be required to sell a goat or cow in order to get the cash to pay taxes? Would someone from the IRS just show up and take a goat to sell if you didn't pay?
In the US and the UK, income is income however earned in whatever currency or form transacted (i.e., whether cash, sex, goats, or blessings).
The IRS does not accept payment in goats. They could secure a court order requiring you to sell the goat, or allowing them to sell the goat to satisfy your tax liability (with the excess returned to you).
> The Internal Revenue Code is not a mechanism for enforcing other codes of law, such as criminal law. [2] A person’s taxable income will generally be subject to the same Federal income tax rules, regardless of whether the income was obtained legally or illegally.
Also, Yale Law has a PDF entitled "Taxing Income from Unlawful Activities" (1974):
> When income from unlawful activities is reported, the taxpayer often supplies his name, address, and net income (usually in round figures, with such laconic labels as "miscellaneous income" or "income from various sources") and leaves the rest of the return blank.
The whole PDF is actually a very interesting historical study of the ins and outs of taxing ill-gotten gains.
I was about to bid on the same project as you and refreshed before submitting and saw yours and then decided against bidding due to this. My message included my intended approach to the work and past projects and also a link to my cv. I didn't want this to be public.
I emailed the contact address for the site to complain about it.
International work. I would use this to find freelancers and be able to easily make payments regardless of where the worker was based. I am in the UK so it opens up access to other workforces, plus making paymets to those foreign
Workers would be simplified.
Exactly. There are countries (Ukraine, Belarus) where PayPal does not allow to withdraw funds (due to stupid local tax code and government regulation of foreign currency) but BitCoins are transferrable freely.
Actually the whole story is not about taxation. Local government wants to control and supervise all people's money. For example, for each incoming payment (wire transfer) they require a piece of paper with ink seal of the sender, date, amount, and account numbers of both parties. If any of these attributes does not match bank transaction data, then you've got a fine. Every local law in this area is made in such way that local workforce is isolated from global market, underpayed, underemployed and kept politically loyal.
So, bitcoins are a like breath of fresh air here. They bypass traditional banking system, controlled by corrupt local authorities.
Once you have bitcoins in a wallet (and internet connection) you can send them to ANYONE in the world with a bitcoin wallet. It can't be more simple. And getting a wallet or wallet service is easy.
You also not need to read and agree to new terms of service every few months (how many people actually read them?). No need to worry you're account will be blocked, that the payment service will stop working and so on.
My paypal account was blocked and the money confiscated for fairly arbitrary reasons.
I opened a new account in a new country because paypal wouldn't allow me to change my address and a site wouldn't deliver to an address other than the paypal address.
Comments
Just placed a bid on a project. Didn't realize till after placing it that the message would be publicly accessible. There's no mention of this on the bid page nor is there any way to edit the message after the fact. Both of these sound like issues that should be addressed.
Other than that I like the idea. Although, the only reason I can think of why a developer would use btcworkers rather than your USD counterparts would be for anonymity (read: avoid paying income tax). What are the other benefits to being paid in bitcoins?
Other than that I like the idea. Although, the only reason I can think of why a developer would use btcworkers rather than your USD counterparts would be for anonymity (read: avoid paying income tax). What are the other benefits to being paid in bitcoins?
I think you know this, but perhaps not all readers do: you still are actually required to pay tax on earnings in BTC - just not declaring the income is illegal (and the authorities _are_ likely to notice if you're making a large amount of it and converting it back to your home currency to spend).
Good point. But I would argue that receiving payment in BTC makes it easier to illegally not declare the income. Now that you can pay for all kinds of products and services using BTC there's no need to convert it to another currency first. The only way to trace it would be if the employer filed a 1099, which they're still incentivized to do in order to write the payment off as a cost instead of profit.
What if you were to get paid in something really non-traditional, like goats.
i.e. - I build a fence for a farmer, and he gives me 7 goats.
What do I owe the IRS?
You are required to count the fair market value of the goats as income.
Hypothetically, what if you only bartered and never used 'money'? Would you be required to sell a goat or cow in order to get the cash to pay taxes? Would someone from the IRS just show up and take a goat to sell if you didn't pay?
Heh, good question. I've never thought about it. Looking on Wikipedia, it does appear that you'd have to come up with the money from somewhere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartering#Tax_implications
In the US and the UK, income is income however earned in whatever currency or form transacted (i.e., whether cash, sex, goats, or blessings).
The IRS does not accept payment in goats. They could secure a court order requiring you to sell the goat, or allowing them to sell the goat to satisfy your tax liability (with the excess returned to you).
Good question for The Goat Spot:
http://www.thegoatspot.net/forum/
I almost can't believe Wikipedia has an article on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_of_illegal_income_in_t...
> The Internal Revenue Code is not a mechanism for enforcing other codes of law, such as criminal law. [2] A person’s taxable income will generally be subject to the same Federal income tax rules, regardless of whether the income was obtained legally or illegally.
Also, Yale Law has a PDF entitled "Taxing Income from Unlawful Activities" (1974):
http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?artic...
> When income from unlawful activities is reported, the taxpayer often supplies his name, address, and net income (usually in round figures, with such laconic labels as "miscellaneous income" or "income from various sources") and leaves the rest of the return blank.
The whole PDF is actually a very interesting historical study of the ins and outs of taxing ill-gotten gains.
I was about to bid on the same project as you and refreshed before submitting and saw yours and then decided against bidding due to this. My message included my intended approach to the work and past projects and also a link to my cv. I didn't want this to be public.
I emailed the contact address for the site to complain about it.
International work. I would use this to find freelancers and be able to easily make payments regardless of where the worker was based. I am in the UK so it opens up access to other workforces, plus making paymets to those foreign Workers would be simplified.
Exactly. There are countries (Ukraine, Belarus) where PayPal does not allow to withdraw funds (due to stupid local tax code and government regulation of foreign currency) but BitCoins are transferrable freely.
Actually the whole story is not about taxation. Local government wants to control and supervise all people's money. For example, for each incoming payment (wire transfer) they require a piece of paper with ink seal of the sender, date, amount, and account numbers of both parties. If any of these attributes does not match bank transaction data, then you've got a fine. Every local law in this area is made in such way that local workforce is isolated from global market, underpayed, underemployed and kept politically loyal.
So, bitcoins are a like breath of fresh air here. They bypass traditional banking system, controlled by corrupt local authorities.
In what way is it really simpler than paypal or some other webwallet?
Once you have bitcoins in a wallet (and internet connection) you can send them to ANYONE in the world with a bitcoin wallet. It can't be more simple. And getting a wallet or wallet service is easy.
You also not need to read and agree to new terms of service every few months (how many people actually read them?). No need to worry you're account will be blocked, that the payment service will stop working and so on.
In a situation like this the terms of service will not affect you, your account will not be blocked and the payment service will not stop working.
People keep forgetting that the overwhelming majority of all eBay payments are done using Paypal.
My paypal account was blocked and the money confiscated for fairly arbitrary reasons.
I opened a new account in a new country because paypal wouldn't allow me to change my address and a site wouldn't deliver to an address other than the paypal address.