A lot of people ask me: “What if I put my cryptocurrency into a trust? Will that save me on taxes?”
Trusts can be very complicated. There are endless variations. But there are some general rules that help organize how trusts are taxed.
First, a trust can earn income. That income might come from staking rewards, other crypto income, or from selling assets and realizing capital gains.
When a trust has income, it is taxed very differently from an individual.
Trusts reach the highest federal tax bracket very quickly, within roughly the first $15,000 of income. That rate is significantly higher than what most individuals pay, and it escalates much faster.
So what’s the advantage?
The key is whether the trust distributes its income.
If a trust distributes all of its income to beneficiaries during the year, that distribution is treated as an expense to the trust. The trust itself ends the year with no taxable profit. This type of structure is often called a simple trust.
In that case, the trust still files a tax return, but it does not pay tax at the trust level. Instead, the income is taxed to the beneficiaries who receive it, usually at much lower individual tax rates.
That can be useful, but it raises an obvious question.
What if you had just held the assets in your own wallet instead of putting them into a trust?
In many cases, the short-term tax result would be the same. Trusts are usually not set up for immediate tax savings. They are more often used for long-term planning.
Trusts can continue after you die and distribute assets according to your instructions. That’s where the biggest tax benefit usually comes in.
The major advantage of a trust, and estate planning generally, is the step-up in basis at death.
While you don’t benefit personally because you’re no longer alive, your beneficiaries do.
Here’s how that works.
Let’s say you bought cryptocurrency years ago for $10,000. At the time of your death, it’s worth $100,000.
When those assets pass to your beneficiaries, the cost basis resets. It is no longer $10,000. It becomes $100,000.
That means when your beneficiaries later sell the assets, they are only taxed on gains that occur after they receive them. The appreciation that happened during your lifetime is never taxed.
That’s what step-up in basis means.
During the Biden administration, Democrats attempted to eliminate the step-up in basis, but that effort did not pass.
So while trusts don’t usually provide immediate tax savings, they can be very powerful tools for long-term planning and transferring crypto assets efficiently to the next generation.
@RandPaul Yes. It is the greatest intergenerational theft in all of human history.
Really surprised young people aren’t more incensed over what the politicians have done to them.
Maybe the schools aren’t covering this topic?
🚨CRYPTO INVESTORS: DO NOT SCAN THIS QR CODE
A fake IRS notice is being mailed to crypto holders directing them to a bogus “Digital Asset Compliance Portal.”
It looks very convincing. It isn’t real.
Please spread the word.
🚨 The Bond Market Just Broke: Japan Dumps $26 Billion in Treasuries While America Is Buying Back Its Own Bonds
Today, the US Treasury admitted the long end of the bond market is broken. Nobody wanted the 10-year, 20-year, or 30-year debt. The 30-year yield just slammed into its highest level since 2007 (peaking near 5.33%).
So what did they do?
They announced they’re AT LEAST DOUBLING their liquidity buybacks of those exact long-term bonds, from a $2 billion max per operation to $4 billion+ starting September 9.
They’re literally borrowing short-term money to buy back their own long-term debt. Classic desperation move. Bond prices spiked, yields crashed 9-10 bps, and futures ripped higher the second the news dropped.
Meanwhile Japan, still the #1 foreign holder of US Treasuries is dumping them to fund currency interventions.
The BoJ and finance minister threatened of bold actions to save the yen. BoJ’s Yuto apologized for the measures being prepared.
June data just showed Japan cut holdings by another $26.4 billion (down to $1.117 trillion).
That follows the massive joint US-Japan yen-buying intervention in late July that burned tens of billions of dollars trying to stop the yen from hitting 40-year lows near 164. The yen has already given back more than half those gains and is back above 159.
When the biggest foreign buyer is selling Treasuries to defend its own currency… and the US government is forced to step in and buy its own unwanted long bonds… this isn’t “market support.” This is the system flashing red.
The famous City Of London banker @LordBelgrave had already warned about the planned debt, oil + currency financial crisis at the start of the year. It is now being executed.
Yields are the gravity of everything, your mortgage, stocks, crypto, gold. The can just got kicked harder and farther. Don’t look away.
"It is deeply heartbreaking to see the Catalina Island deer herd being wiped out. These beautiful creatures are part of the living world we all share. Is there anyone stepping up to protect them and give them a voice? They deserve to live just as much as we do."
I have friends in the Philippines who still lose 5-12% every time money is sent to them.
Meanwhile XRP moves the same amount in 4 seconds for pennies.
They think crypto = gambling. I think crypto = freedom from banks that eat their lunch.
the Bitcoin maxi experience with XRP:
2013 — "XRP is centralized garbage"
2017 — "XRP is a banker coin, betrayal of crypto"
2018 — "XRP is going to zero"
2020 — "SEC lawsuit proves we were right"
2021 — "still going to zero"
2022 — "definitely going to zero now"
2023 — "Ripple won but XRP is still useless"
2024 — "banks are using it but it's still useless"
2025 — "okay it's not going to zero but it's still useless"
2026 — "it may go up but still...😂"
the goal post has traveled further than any XRP transaction ever has.
and XRP transactions travel pretty far.
instantly.
for $0.0002.
Please spread the word and help if you can. A proposed development on #BigBearLake a mile from the Bald Eagles nest could do irreparable harm to our eagles and plant life. #SaveMoonCamp 👇
https://t.co/yUN7W7YG1U