The Internal Revenue Service got approval from a federal court in California to collect two years of information from Coinbase, the blockchain company, about its American users.
According to a report by Reuters, which cited the U.S. Department of Justice, the Northern District of California court is allowing the IRS to serve a summons to Coinbase for U.S. taxpayers who engaged in virtual currency transactions using the Coinbase platform from 2013 to 2015. The ruling didn’t sit well with Coinbase, which told Reuters: “We look forward to opposing the DOJ’s request in court after Coinbase is served with a subpoena.”
Last month, news broke that the IRS is actively looking for bitcoin-based tax evasion. According to documents filed in November, the tax agency is fiercely going after tax evaders, both big and small, who are using bitcoin-based transactions in an attempt to hide funds by simple not reporting them.
