US court allows IRS to demand identities of Coinbase users

Approved.

That was the ruling handed down by a Northern California District Court judge, allowing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to require bitcoin wallet service Coinbase to submit records of all transactions that took place from 2013 to 2015. The summons was part of an investigation into possible tax fraud committed by U.S. residents who engaged in business with or through the California-based virtual currency exchange.

“The taxpayers being investigated have not been or may not be complying with U.S. internal revenue laws requiring the reporting of taxable income from virtual currency transactions,” the IRS wrote in its request.

The Department of Justice made the request for a “John Doe” summon, which essentially identifies a person or ascertainable group or class by their activities, several weeks ago on behalf of the IRS.