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Out of curiosity, what's your recommendation on how to differentiate a very competent tax lawyer from one that's merely good? Also, what's wrong with "crypto la

Out of curiosity, what's your recommendation on how to differentiate a very competent tax lawyer from one that's merely good? Also, what's wrong with "crypto lawyer" people?

tldrthelaw 5y ago
Domain-specific knowledge. You can't go point to point with even a marginally competent lawyer on the law (probably), but you know a lot about your issue. Can they hang? In the case of crypto, do their eyes glaze over if you refer to an altcoin? Do they use "bitcoin" and "blockchain" interchangeably? Use same process for whatever your issue is -- SaaS contracts, tech trans, etc. The crypto lawyer folks are, by and large, claiming to be experts in a practice that is so new and so without firm guidance as to be practically the tax wild west. Right now we are in the metaphor stage, we're defining everything involved with cryptocurrency (from a tax perspective) with metaphors to other things: currency, stock, digital goods, etc. The cases that will be cited forever to define crypto for tax purposes are going to be litigated in the next few years, don't be one of them. TLDR: Look for a tax attorney that knows the tech behind cryptocurrency well enough and doesn't make any promises or guarantees. Edit: One additional point, merely competent attorneys won't be published in their field. If you're looking for an expert find someone who is contributing to the discussion in their area.
- t0mbstone 5y ago
  TL;DR: Find a good crypto lawyer
- vmception 5y ago
  Yeah dont listen to this guy unless you want to spend 15 hours telling a licensed professional that digital assets have price charts and are extremely liquid for the needs of 99% of people and easily convertible to fiat, all while they keep deflecting to some old irrelevant headline that has nothing to do with you paying taxes on assets received and traded. Find a lawyer that is advertising competency in this field, is willing to look at the nature of transactions instead of just assuming everything is capital gains or losses. I’ve handheld many financial professionals on crypto topics over the last 5 years. It is a godsend that so many have moved to fill in a niche now.
  - tldrthelaw 5y ago
    None of this means anything. "Nature of the transaction" is not a thing. Like-kind exchanges no longer exist. Transacting in crypto, to buy something or to sell it, is a taxable transaction of a capital asset and results in a capital gain or capital loss. As for the "licensed professional" dig, they're the only people who are going to represent you in front of the IRS when bad advice gets you in trouble. Do with that information what you will. So FWIW, look out for ^ these guys too. Talk to your state or the federal bar taxation section.
    - vmception 5y ago
      This is uninspired, the nature of the transaction includes vesting schedules, 83(b) elections, 83(i) elections, donations to tax exempt organizations, and much much more. Nobody said anything about like-kind nonsense but for some reason thats the entire universe of your meta considerations. Yeah, I’m not really responding to you at this point, everyone else that makes it this far in The thread, the point is clear: find someone inspired enough and willing enough to look at the nature of a transaction and its associated tax compliance even if they are unfamiliar with the assets used in the transaction but ideally are familiar with crypto assets being used instead of cash or securities. On this point, both of us are saying the same thing, except that the other person thinks that someone advertising domain expertise will give bad guidance. There is no way of gauging that from that assumption alone.
      - tldrthelaw 5y ago
        Lot of BS buzz words in this reply. IRS does not recognize crypto as cash. Please folks, disregard this inspired (read: bad) advice.
        vmception 5y ago
        there wasnt a single buzz word or marketing term used. you are obsessed with being right to attract business to your dinosaur accounting/legal firm thats losing business in a high growth sector, under the guise of better compliance and denigrating firms that you have no idea what they file
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 5y ago
  I think a lawyer without an extra computer science degree is utterly worthless in that case. Just too much technical knowledge required. Most lawyers can't tell a bit from a byte.

Out of curiosity, what's your recommendation on how to differentiate a very competent tax lawyer from one that's merely good? Also, what's wrong with "crypto lawyer" people?

tldrthelaw 5y ago

Domain-specific knowledge. You can't go point to point with even a marginally competent lawyer on the law (probably), but you know a lot about your issue. Can they hang? In the case of crypto, do their eyes glaze over if you refer to an altcoin? Do they use "bitcoin" and "blockchain" interchangeably? Use same process for whatever your issue is -- SaaS contracts, tech trans, etc. The crypto lawyer folks are, by and large, claiming to be experts in a practice that is so new and so without firm guidance as to be practically the tax wild west. Right now we are in the metaphor stage, we're defining everything involved with cryptocurrency (from a tax perspective) with metaphors to other things: currency, stock, digital goods, etc. The cases that will be cited forever to define crypto for tax purposes are going to be litigated in the next few years, don't be one of them. TLDR: Look for a tax attorney that knows the tech behind cryptocurrency well enough and doesn't make any promises or guarantees. Edit: One additional point, merely competent attorneys won't be published in their field. If you're looking for an expert find someone who is contributing to the discussion in their area.

t0mbstone 5y ago
TL;DR: Find a good crypto lawyer
vmception 5y ago
Yeah dont listen to this guy unless you want to spend 15 hours telling a licensed professional that digital assets have price charts and are extremely liquid for the needs of 99% of people and easily convertible to fiat, all while they keep deflecting to some old irrelevant headline that has nothing to do with you paying taxes on assets received and traded. Find a lawyer that is advertising competency in this field, is willing to look at the nature of transactions instead of just assuming everything is capital gains or losses. I’ve handheld many financial professionals on crypto topics over the last 5 years. It is a godsend that so many have moved to fill in a niche now.
- tldrthelaw 5y ago
  None of this means anything. "Nature of the transaction" is not a thing. Like-kind exchanges no longer exist. Transacting in crypto, to buy something or to sell it, is a taxable transaction of a capital asset and results in a capital gain or capital loss. As for the "licensed professional" dig, they're the only people who are going to represent you in front of the IRS when bad advice gets you in trouble. Do with that information what you will. So FWIW, look out for ^ these guys too. Talk to your state or the federal bar taxation section.
  - vmception 5y ago
    This is uninspired, the nature of the transaction includes vesting schedules, 83(b) elections, 83(i) elections, donations to tax exempt organizations, and much much more. Nobody said anything about like-kind nonsense but for some reason thats the entire universe of your meta considerations. Yeah, I’m not really responding to you at this point, everyone else that makes it this far in The thread, the point is clear: find someone inspired enough and willing enough to look at the nature of a transaction and its associated tax compliance even if they are unfamiliar with the assets used in the transaction but ideally are familiar with crypto assets being used instead of cash or securities. On this point, both of us are saying the same thing, except that the other person thinks that someone advertising domain expertise will give bad guidance. There is no way of gauging that from that assumption alone.
    - tldrthelaw 5y ago
      Lot of BS buzz words in this reply. IRS does not recognize crypto as cash. Please folks, disregard this inspired (read: bad) advice.
      - vmception 5y ago
        there wasnt a single buzz word or marketing term used. you are obsessed with being right to attract business to your dinosaur accounting/legal firm thats losing business in a high growth sector, under the guise of better compliance and denigrating firms that you have no idea what they file
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 5y ago
I think a lawyer without an extra computer science degree is utterly worthless in that case. Just too much technical knowledge required. Most lawyers can't tell a bit from a byte.