Summary:
- If you own a Helium hotspot, the rewards you earn are typically taxable.
- Tax is commonly based on the fiat value of the tokens at the time of receipt.
- You can use a software tool to do a quick calculation of your taxable income.
What is Helium?
If you're not familiar with Helium, check out "Helium Hotspots: Make Money While you Relax?".
What kinds of tax do I owe as a Helium hotspot owner?
Typically, there are two ways in which countries will tax you:
- Income tax. You are required to pay income tax on any Helium rewards you earn - regardless of whether you sell those tokens or not. I'll cover this in this post.
- Capital gains tax. Certain countries will further tax you if you sell your Helium tokens. This tax is typically on the increase in value between when you received/bought the tokens and the value at which you sell the tokens. I'll deal with this in my next post.
Note: "Selling" your Helium tokens can include swapping them for another crypto, or using them to pay for a good or service.
How do I calculate taxes on Helium rewards?
Tax is typically calculated based on the fiat value of rewards at the time you received those rewards. This is different than the value of those rewards at today's Helium token price!
To calculate taxable income, you need to figure out the dollar (or euro or yuan etc.) value of each reward you received. This is most easily done using a simple tax tool, such as the one I've built at www.HeliumTaxTools.com (video here).
Keep in mind that this tool just helps to calculate the value of the rewards at the time received. The specifics of how taxes are calculated will depend on your country.
Comment below with any questions, feature requests or if you've trouble using the tool.
Also, you can subscribe at Pinotio.com to get an update on when the capital gains feature is launched.
