IRS Summons for Coinbase Records Violated Privacy, Taxpayer Says

A cryptocurrency user’s challenge to an IRS third-party summons for transaction logs and other records should go forward because he had a reasonable expectation the information would remain private, the user told the First Circuit.

James Harper sued the IRS after it acquired records of his account activity, balances, and the names of the counterparties to his virtual currency transactions, alleging it had violated constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure.

A federal court in New Hampshire dismissed the case, ruling that because Harper had provided the records to crypto exchange Coinbase voluntarily, he had neither a reasonable expectation of ...