Tax information for statutory and non-statutory Employee stock purchase plans

Tax information Restricted Stock Units are taxed differently than other kinds of stock options, such as statutory and non-statutory Employee stock purchase plans. Those plans generally have tax consequences at the date of exercise or sale, whereas restricted stock usually becomes taxable upon the completion of the vesting schedule. The entire amount of the vested stock must be counted as ordinary income in the year of vesting.

Goods and Services

Though the number of vendors supporting Bitcoin is not something to brag about, you will still find plenty of them. If you purchase any goods or services with the help of Bitcoin or any other virtual currency for that matter it must reflect in your W2 Form. Here is what you need to do.

• Convert the equivalent of virtual currency on the day of purchase and keep a note of the same.
• If your employer pays you in virtual currency, they are subject to same taxes as wages in dollars.

It is important to declare the income in dollars in your W2 Form, irrespective of which virtual currency you dealt with. Self-employed individuals must include the same in their tax returns.

Investment

Though most virtual currencies are still in their nascent forms, quite a few of the investors are taking them are serious investments. They believe that the money invested in virtual currency will yield them great returns in the future; which have proven to be correct in the case of Bitcoin as of now. Should you plan to do the same, they would fall under the same category as your normal stocks, capital assets and bonds do. You are liable to pay capital gain or loss tax on your virtual currency in such a scenario.

Mining

As of now, there are two ways by which you can get your hands on the virtual currencies. First is the good old method where you buy the virtual currency using real currency. The second method is called mining. The later uses computing power to validate the transactions and keep a track of all transactions. Essentially becoming a part of the block chain.