Taxpayers aren’t able to defer taxes on exchanges of cryptocurrency, even for transactions that occurred before 2018, an IRS official said.
Up until now it has been clear that taxpayers can’t use like-kind exchanges for cryptocurrency trades beginning in 2018 due to changes made in the 2017 tax overhaul. Like-kind exchanges allow taxpayers to postpone paying tax on the gain of a sale if the proceeds are reinvested in similar property.
But tax practitioners have disagreed about whether that tool be an option for cryptocurrency transactions prior to 2018.
Suzanne Sinno, an attorney in the IRS Office of the Associate ...