U.S. Court Permits IRS to Serve Crypto Broker with a John Doe Summons

A federal court in the Central District of California allows an order authorizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a “John Doe” summons on the crypto broker sFOX. The IRS explicitly seeks information about U.S. taxpayers who conducted a minimum of $20,000 in crypto transactions and did not report it between 2016 and 2020. Additionally, the U.S. federal agency is looking for records from Americans who dealt with or through sFOX Inc, a digital currency dealer in San Francisco, California, and did not declare the funds on their tax filings. Deputy Assistant Attorney General David A. Hubbert of the Tax Division of the Justice Department said, “The information sought by the summons approved today will help to ensure that cryptocurrency owners are following the tax laws.” John Doe Summons The IRS is now reviewing new tax reporting rules and seeking to crack down on defaulters. Thus, the summons will be issued now. The IRS has long utilized the John Doe summons, which was allowed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1975 case of United States v. Bisceglia and later codified by Congress, as a potent weapon to prosecute tax fraud schemes and to gather complete information about Bitcoin transactions. Coinbase And Mastercard Summoned Earlier The statement claims that because cryptocurrencies are difficult to track and have a pseudo-anonymous quality, people may use them to conceal taxable income from the IRS. It will look into peo...