The Internet Archive To Pay Salaries Partly In Bitcoin, Requests Donations

hypnosec writes "Bitcoin is gaining popularity among mainstream sites lately and the latest to adopt the digital currency as a medium of donations and payments is the Internet Archive. Ready to accept donation in the form of Bitcoin, the Internet Archive announced that it wants to do so to pay some part of employees' salaries, if they choose to, in Bitcoin. The Archive, known for its storage of digital documents (especially the previous version of webpages), is looking to start part salary payments in Bitcoin by April 2013 if everything goes well."

tax evasion?

[Anonymous Coward]

how should this be taxed?

Re:I'd quit

[Great Big Bird]

Never would I want to get paid in Bitcoin. I am not anonymous. Bitcoin has benefits for sure, but there is too much uncertainty in the market for it to be worth this.

Re:I'd quit

[Anonymous Coward]

"uncertainty in the market" - it's exactly this reason why and these times when people turn to alternate currency, like gold, diamonds or Bitcoin.
Any currency based on national debt (which is what we currently are using) seems to be problematic in the long term. Bitcoin has it's own issues but dependance on un-elected and unbalanced federal reserve isn't one of them, which ironically was founded to ensure the stability of the financial system.
It's feature of being a "deflationary currency" is certainly a strong selling point when we're seeing the dollar tank verses energy and living expenses, and interest rates too low to make savings a good idea.

The best investment advice is "Buy Low, Sell High". The second best advices is "Diversify!". Bitcoin seems to be outpacing gold and other monetary metals in exchangeable value, and is designed to be worth more later as it grows in popularity (I would argue that it's already found success in multiple ways), and as it's not recognized as "money" or anything with intrinsic value - could arguably be given as salary without income tax. It certainly could be done without anyone being the wiser. Render unto Ceaser what is Ceaser's, I'd take a portion of my salary as Bitcoin in a heartbeat.

Corporations and the folks at the top have already gamed the government and financial systems beyond repair for themselves. It's time to start switching to a people's currency that's likely not possible to be gamed.

"I am not anonymous." - Great Big Bird

"I am Sparticus!" - Anonymous

Re:I'd quit

[Anonymous Coward]

Um no. You can exchange them for USD or just about any other currency of your choosing.

I've actually managed to pay ~25% of my expenses for the last two years with bitcoins, using them either directly or indirectly with a few smaller mining rigs.
I use them directly to pay my hosting, vpn, investments in silver, and the rest is converted to USD to pay off my car. (so yeah, you can pay your meal or mortgage no problem)

The amount of places accepting them is growing fast, with over 2000 merchants using the bitpay processor alone right now.

I find them great to use directly when I can. Payment is almost instant. Don't have to worry about credit card data. You have direct evidence of transaction via the blockchain, so the one time I actually did have an issue with a transaction (cart failed), it was easy to show a valid transaction did indeed occur and was quickly resolved.

But it's easy enough to convert to dollars too if you want.

Re:I'd quit

[brokenin2]

I'm posting pseudonymously instead of anonymously.. Wow, I can really feel the difference.. Fear is overwhelming me.. Let me see.. If my karma drops, what exactly happens then? Oh yeah.. a number somewhere that doesn't really mean anything changes.

I have a fair chunk of change for my discretionary spending, but it's almost all in Bitcoin. Sure, I pay the electric bill in USD (for now) and buy the groceries that way, but there are plenty of things that I won't buy unless I can buy them with Bitcoin. They are missing out on *some* sales.. Maybe the number isn't very significant, but for the ease of setting it up, I don't see why you wouldn't accept them.

Now, the reason I keep a lot of my money in Bitcoin is because it is a superior currency. No two ways about it. People sit there and bitch and moan about a 1% tax hike here, or there, but then immediately turn right around and are completely oblivious to a 50% tax that just took 1/2 of all their wealth.. They don''t notice when this happens because China buys up all the extra money that the CB keeps printing, but I'll wager a guess that they'll notice one day, when China comes back over here and purchases the west coast using our own money.

Re:I'd quit

[Mashiki]

Why not? Right now you're looking at nearly a 35% gain if you were being paid now in corn future and selling them in 4 months. That's a hell of a turn around, that even beats the most aggressive and risky stock trading you can get the down and dirty in.

Real Bitcoin Tax in Canada

[CmpEng]

Since so many people ask about the tax issues around bitcoins thought I would share my experience with bitcoin profits and taxes in Canada. Basically I purchase equipment to build a dedicated bitcoin machine, total cost around $900 mostly for graphics cards. In all I made about 600 bitcoins over three months and was on average able to cash them out for about $10 per bitcoin shortly after the crash of the price from $30 on the way down to $5. As a Canadian during the $30 spike, the ability to liquidate fast enough to take advantage of those prices while limited due to the risk I was willing to take about putting my bitcoin in different online exchange accounts. In all I gross about $6k and come tax time spoke with my accountant and was able to claim it as business income. That means I was able to write off a portion of space in my house (limited by local by-laws), mortgage payments, power, utilities, etc... as well as write off portions of the $900 PC purchase each year as capital investment. After all was said in done on the $6k I took in, I ended up having to pay back $1.5k for a net of $4.5k plus a still have a great new PC. For the three months I toyed with Bitcoin it was certainly worth it.