“Unlike traditional government-issued currencies, property does not enjoy a de minimis exemption. This is in contrast to how foreign currencies are treated, which do enjoy an exemption,” a letter authored by Coin Center said. “… This means that every time you buy a cup of coffee or anything else with bitcoin, it counts as a taxable event. If you have experienced a gain because the price of bitcoin has appreciated between the time you acquired the bitcoin and the time you used it, you have to report it to the IRS at the end of the year, no matter how small the gain. Obviously this creates a lot of friction and discourages the use of bitcoin or any cryptocurrency as an everyday payment method.”
