Steemit can't do that because not everyone is from the USA. I think the way to pay taxes or the way I do it is to calculate it at the exchanges like Bittrex or calculate it when it reaches my bank account. The weird USD values and SBD present inaccurate information which only makes it harder. If a CPA tells me I'm doing it wrong then maybe they should come up with some tool to help me do it right but as it is right now it's very unclear and very hard to calculate from information presented.
How much would you charge people to calculate it for them and prepare all of it from just the account info presented on Steem? I do think Steemit at times makes matters worse for themselves though because on one hand they present USD estimates but then on the other will try to claim they aren't responsible so why put USD info at all?
My view is, before charging to help people calculate their income, I would rather create a tutorial. I'm going to attempt to calculate my taxable income as a case study closer to the end of December when I have a full year calendar 2017. And make a post of it.
I would really like if Steem could make a few simple updates to their wallet (if this already exists I am unaware):
The USD amount they show in the wallet is largely irrelevant because that includes unrealized gains and losses. The taxable event occurs when the award is received in the form of Steem currencies; when the Steem is cashed out to USD that is a second gain/loss. Perhaps moving from SBD to Steem is a third gain/loss that happens before cashing out.
Although Steem claims no responsibility for our taxes, I'm not entirely sure that Steem as a company is not responsible to file forms to 1099 for US citizens; they very well could be. That is a good post idea I will look into it :) !
SBD is Steem so how can it be a gain loss when SBD isn't really anything more than a variable amount of Steem? The whole thing confuses me.
Hi, moving SBD to Steem is really not a significant step as long as SBD stably tracks to 1 USD, but SBD and pure STEEM are separate assets trading in Bittrex. In other words, if SBD lost stability and became a volatile token, trading from SBD to STEEM could create a more significant gain (or loss). The most two important tax events if SBD-USD FX is stable are (1) receipt of the SBD/SP reward and (2) cashing out to BTC/USD. This is all just my personal view of course.