Hi,
in the crypto-space airdrops are a common ting. That is when someone (more
or less) gifts you crypto assets. This can be, e.g., part of a promotion.
Regarding the accounting of this there are two things to consider:
1. Someone just gifted you money. I'd account that as some sort of
income.
2. You might need to pay taxes on this gift.
Tax-wise an airdrop itself isn't taxed. It is assumed that I "*bought*" the
asset at a cost basis of 0. If I sell the asset later, everything I'll
receive in exchange for the airdropped asset counts as gain—as I can't
deduct any costs. In other words: The taxation of the airdrop is delayed to
the time when I sell the airdropped asset. And at that point the airdrop
gets fully taxed at the current asset price.
If you want to account only for (1) *or* (2) this is fairly easy. But I'd
like to account for both. This is where my problems come:
- For tax-purposes I need to post a transaction leg with a cost basis of
0
- For income tracking purposes I need to post a transaction with a cost
basis of whatever the airdropped asset is priced at the moment of the
airdrop
It seems that accounting for the actual income and for tax purposes is
mutually exclusive:
option "booking_method" "FIFO"
option "operating_currency" "USD"
plugin "beancount.plugins.auto_accounts"
2021-01-07 * "Coinbase Earn" "Coinbase Earn Airdrop $XLM" #airdrop
utc: "2021-01-07T05:34:19Z"
Assets:Crypto:CEX:Coinbase:XLM 29.1631914 XLM { 0 USD } @
0.28 USD; @@ 8.17 USD
Income:Crypto:Airdrops
This example creates this transaction context:
** Transaction Id --------------------------------
Hash:01ed10463f3915cbc81b0999886944ab
Location: Test.Airdrop.bean:6
** Balances before transaction --------------------------------
Assets:Crypto:CEX:Coinbase:XLM
Income:Crypto:Airdrops
** Unbooked Transaction --------------------------------
2021-01-07 * "Coinbase Earn" "Coinbase Earn Airdrop $XLM" #airdrop
utc: "2021-01-07T05:34:19Z"
Assets:Crypto:CEX:Coinbase:XLM 29.1631914 XLM {0 USD} @ 0.28 USD
Income:Crypto:Airdrops
** Transaction --------------------------------
2021-01-07 * "Coinbase Earn" "Coinbase Earn Airdrop $XLM" #airdrop
utc: "2021-01-07T05:34:19Z"
Assets:Crypto:CEX:Coinbase:XLM 29.1631914 XLM {0.00 USD, 2021-01-07} @
0.28 USD ; 0.0000000 USD
** Residual and Tolerances --------------------------------
Tolerances: XLM=5E-8
** Balances after transaction --------------------------------
* Assets:Crypto:CEX:Coinbase:XLM 29.1631914 XLM {0 USD,
2021-01-07}
Income:Crypto:Airdrops
Logically, there isn't any income. Is there any way to post a lot with a
cost basis of 0 while accounting for the factual income of 8.17 USD?
I guess, I want to eat the cake and have it (accounting wise). Is that
possible?
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