Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The online payments giant has added a new 'Checkout with Crypto' feature, which is set to become available for US users from Tuesday. The service will allow those holding bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, and litecoin in their wallets to convert their tokens into US dollars or other fiat currencies while making purchases, with no additional transaction fees.
The option is set to automatically appear in people's PayPal wallets, but only one type of coin can be used for each purchase, according to the company. The fintech giant reportedly plans to enable the option at all of its 29 million merchants.
According to coinbase (as of 2021-03-30 20:35 UTC), Bitcoin was at $58,466 (+1.95%), Ethereum was at $1,840 (+2.04%), and BitCoin Cash was at $528 (+1.95%).
(Disclaimer: SoylentNews accepts Subscription payments using either PayPal or Stripe.)
(Score: 2) by Eratosthenes on Tuesday March 30 2021, @09:20PM (1 child)
No DogeCoin? Snoop and I will be very upset.
(Score: 2) by Eratosthenes on Tuesday March 30 2021, @09:24PM
And, story submission is broken?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 30 2021, @09:32PM (7 children)
That's true... provided you're willing to live with their exchange rate of 4000 BTC per USD. But no fees!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday March 30 2021, @10:10PM (6 children)
IRS claims to be going after crypto by taxing cash-outs as well, and mainstream services such as PayPal would likely be glad to provide them a paper-trail.
I don't know shit about crypto, but isn't the appeal about anonymity and beating the taxman? The more it mainstreams, the wider latitude insiders would have in manipulating its worth to include crashing it and profiting from their inside information of the crash, like how all those Jews dumped everything the day before 9/11 and the FBI mentioned insider trading but never bothered to investigate it.
Doesn't mean that I'll never embrace crypto, but it'll take desperate measures like hyperinflation or bypassing mandatory vaccine passports to buy groceries.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 30 2021, @11:13PM (4 children)
They're already providing paper trails. It used to be that PayPal would only report you to the IRS and send you a 1099 form if you sold over $20K in goods and had over 200 transactions in a year. Thanks to the recent stimulus bill that passed, it'll now be reported if you make more than $600 per year, total. (That's not just for PayPal, but any such online payment processor or whatever middleman you use.) Many small sellers on eBay and the like are simply going to stop bothering to sell anything, as trying to track cost basis and sale revenue on a multitude of small items, to report on the tax forms, just isn't worth the bother anymore.
It's interesting, in a morbid kind of way, to see the many ways they're going about killing the US economy. I expect a nationwide ban on garage sales soon. If you toss some coins to a bum, expect to be shot down by a SWAT team.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 31 2021, @02:58AM (2 children)
Do you have a link to the new PayPal / IRS rules?
All I see is this page, https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/irs6050w [paypal.com] which just quotes $20K / 200 transactions.
The informal org that I've been running for the last 15 years may have to stop accepting PayPal if the limit you mention is true. While we're flying under the radar, we are being good--none of the volunteers that manage the little org are taking any pay or other money out--all funds received go to purchase services used by the members. Per my CPA this was (at the time we started), all perfectly legal.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 31 2021, @04:51AM (1 child)
Reported here: https://runningwithmiles.boardingarea.com/paypal-payment-network-reporting-stimulus-bill/ [boardingarea.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 31 2021, @09:23PM
Thanks! From that page--
> 1) IN GENERAL.—The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply to returns for calendar years beginning after December 31, 2021.
This advance notice gives me plenty of time to prepare, really appreciated.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday March 31 2021, @03:05AM
California has some tax regs regarding garage sales which I've thankfully forgotten, but long story short the tax man did come down on people who had more than (IIRC) one garage sale per month, because the sales tax applies to sales of secondhand goods. (It didn't used to, but at some point became enforced.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 31 2021, @02:31AM
Seems that the Ethanon_Fooled knows he is so toxic and infectious that he will never qualify for the vaccine passport, and so will have to remain in the basement, trolling the SoylentNews, and collecting unemployment from Fox News. Say "Hi" to "Typhoid Tucker" for me, Eth!
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday March 30 2021, @10:19PM (1 child)
Now, if I could only pay my bills with Paypal...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by martyb on Wednesday March 31 2021, @01:08AM
Maybe you can? https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/credit-line-and-card-services [paypal.com]
NB: I have no personal experience with them, but have seen people pay for purchases using a card from PayPal.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday March 31 2021, @12:33AM (1 child)
In 2020 did you ... use in their lingo ... any cryptocurrency.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @04:05PM
Yeah. And notice how usually the government is incompetent but the text in the book about THAT box is very well written and comprehensive? Whoever wrote it knew quite a bit about the details of crypto.
And notice how PayPal went full KYC last year? Almost certainly in preparation for this crypto move.