Ron Paul, an American author, physician, and former US Republican congressman, recently wrote in a blog post that people should not be required to pay taxes on their crypto asset holdings.

In his blog, Paul criticized the US Federal Reserve’s decision to increase interest rates, while adding that those expressing concerns about the high volatility of digital assets should understand that fiat money can also potentially be “anything but stable.”  

Paul further argued: 

Central banks constantly increase and decrease the money supply in an attempt to control the economy by controlling the interest rates … [which causes] individuals to misread market conditions, leading to a misallocation of resources … [and it also gives the] illusion of prosperity.

Ron Paul

Quantitative Easing To Blame For Financial Crisis

Notably, the bitcoin whitepaper published by Satoshi Nakamoto almost ten years ago tries to address, or resolve, these same issues. They include problems related to the quantitative easing measures (“introduction of new money into the money supply by central banks”) that the world’s financial institutions used in order recover from the global financial crisis of 2008.

Paul also criticized central banks for continuing to print money and noted that when it “reaches the middle class and working class, inflation has set in, so any gain in purchasing power is more than offset by the increase in inflation.”

In contrast, bitcoin (BTC) is a deflationary form of currency as there will only be a finite number of bitcoins (21 million) that may exist.

According to Paul, “central banking causes income inequality”, and because of issues partially related to the US federal reserve’s poor monetary policies, “it is likely that the next … recession will come sooner rather than later.”

Nouriel Roubini Also Critcized US Fed’s Monetary Policies

He added that a potential financial crisis can be avoided if the Fed’s operations are audited, and by “allowing people to use alternative currencies, and exempting all transactions in precious metals and cryptocurrencies from capital gains taxes and other taxes.”

Notably, renowned economist Nouriel Roubini also criticized the federal reserve’s monetary policies during the US senate hearing on “Exploring the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Ecosystem.”

However, Roubini has always been extremely skeptical about cryptocurrencies, and even blockchain technology, as he has often referred to them as “the mother of all scams.”

Very Complicated To File Crypto Taxes

As CryptoGlobe reported, filing taxes on capital gains from cryptocurrencies is currently a very complicated process. The US tax authority, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers digital currencies to be property, or an asset class similar to traditional stocks (in some cases).

However, to accurately report gains for tax purposes, crypto investors have to go through all the different transaction logs from their personal wallets and the exchanges they have used for trading. This has become a very cumbersome process for many crypto traders, and a more efficient, or simpler, method of filing taxes for crypto earnings is required.

 

Featured Image Credit: “Ron Paul” by “Gage Skidmore” via Flickr; licensed under “CC BY 2.0”