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Comment by chollida1 | Hacker News Reader

If I were to swap some Apple shares for Microsoft shares , without selling one for cash first, that would still be a taxable event.

I know this because we did such a trade with another fund.

Swapping one crypto for another is the same thing, the fact that fiat isn't involved doesn't change much in this scenario.

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Even giving the stock to someone else can be a taxable event (e.g. in lieu of cash you owed).

This isn't actually true as companies routinely acquire each other using mostly or only stock. However, the IRS does not consider exchange of stock for stock in mergers and acquisitions to be a taxable event.

Different case than what we're talking about here. Your case would be the same if it was cash buying a company.

Here we're talking about something different, which is an individual trading one form of crypto for another and showing how the same trade donew ith stock would be taxed similarly if you just swapped stock with another trader.

You are also taxed if you use cryptocurrency to directly buy goods or services as well. Based on my understanding, that would include using cryptocurrency to buy a company.

No one offers swapping x shares for y shares, you have to sell and buy. You can swap currency and some people believe crypto is currency, so it is different.

the common analogy would be an FX pair (like GBPUSD)

And how are forex transactions taxed? Why don't we just apply that policy to crypto?

> Why don't we just apply that policy to crypto?

This is the core of the whole issue; IRS (and similar bodies) are deciding what crypto "is", at least for tax purposes (as is their purview). That has implication for how and when things are taxed.

in the UK it depends on the intent of the transaction

speculation is treated differently to full-time trading, which is in term treated differently to trying to make some money on the side

Then there's a loophole right? Create a stable coin, and never have to cashout.

It doesn't really matter if you make the analogy of asset or FX; you owe tax on gains in either case.

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