The Bitcoin Expense Tracker from software development firm Sembro Development not only facilitates the documentation of gains and losses through an automated process for tax-reporting purposes but also provides a variety of financial calculations that include: total account value(s), spending trends, realized gain/loss, unrealized gain/loss, internal vs. external account transfers, and tax-obligations which can then be broken down and viewed per individual wallet address while also being supported by 21 different currencies and available in any country by using blockchain technology.
"What puts our product ahead of the competition", says Sembro Development President, Ian Worrall, "Is that we developed an infrastructure that only requires a one-time setup which takes less than 10 minutes, requires no importing of data from exchanges, is available globally, provides flexibility to constantly changing regulations, offers more functionality, and above all, will save tax-payers worldwide time and money." And he assures us that this is only the beginning.
The IRS ruled that virtual currency is treated as property, making price fluctuations in Bitcoin subject to capital gains taxes, which can be cumbersome. For example, on August 31, 2014 the price of Bitcoin reached a low of $475.17 and a high of $502.54, marking a price swing of $27.37. With Bitcoin's user base and volatility increasing, these fluctuations are likely to continue, if not exacerbate, and all of them will be taxed.
Now, all Bitcoin users must keep records of all Bitcoin purchases, sells, and transactions, including the time, date, and US dollar value at the time of the transaction to keep up with tax liability. The IRS reserves the right to impose penalties on any individuals or businesses that treated a virtual currency transaction differently than as stated by the IRS in Notice 2014-21. That means the IRS can back tax all Bitcoin transactions past, present, and future.
For the average Bitcoin trader and user, keeping records of all transactions is time consuming and difficult. Since the virtual currency's inception in January 2009, thousands upon thousands of transactions have been made. Most of which are now subject to taxing via the IRS as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the IRS can go back up to 3 years to audit an individual.
Sembro Development created the Bitcoin Expense Tracker to save Bitcoin users and traders the time and energy required to research and record all of their Bitcoin transactions and the relative fiat value.
But how do does it work?
The Bitcoin Expense Tracker pulls data in real-time from the Bitcoin blockchain and re-organizes that information to display on a front-end interface in a matter of seconds (refer to the diagram below for process overview). New users simply must input their wallet addresses upon launching the software for the first time and then it will automatically record all buys, sells, and transfers in the transaction ledger which can be easily exported into an excel spreadsheet and given to an accountant or tax specialist to reconcile any discrepancies or report year end gains/losses.
"Overview of back-end processes"
This software is also not limited to just the United States. Instead of specifying a tax bracket according to government regulations during the registration process, users simply input a numerical number (country tax code resources provided on website) which represents their closest estimate to what percentage their taxable income will fall into for the current year. In addition, the application works in retrospect so all past transactions are added to the transaction ledger within moments of adding a wallet address.
What's in store next? Worrall hinted at an even more advanced version which may target businesses.