Can you get rid of Bitcoin taxes by paying for a passport? "Bitcoin Jesus" Roger Ver spent eleven years answering this question. In 2014, he obtained citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis, renouncing his U.S. citizenship. Last October, this debt was finally settled with a bill of nearly $50 million. But what everyone in the cryptocurrency world involved with U.S. taxes should really pay attention to is what the IRS is going to do next. According to Odaily's timeline, Ver started buying Bitcoin in 2011. By February 2014, he and the two companies he controlled, MemoryDealers and Agilestar, held approximately 131,000 Bitcoins, at a price of about $871 per coin at the time. There's a rule in the U.S. that many people haven't heard of called the renunciation tax. When renouncing citizenship, all assets under one's name worldwide are considered as if they were all sold the day before the renouncing, and capital gains tax is levied on the profits. Bitcoin is treated as property and is subject to the same taxation. Ver filed for citizenship relinquishment in May 2016, but later admitted that the declaration did not list all of his Bitcoin holdings, nor did he pay taxes on the "deemed sale" of those coins. Eight years passed between that declaration and the public release of the indictment in April 2024, after which he was arrested in Spain. The ending was more dramatic than many expected. According to The Block, in October 2025, Ver reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, admitting to intentionally failing to declare his Bitcoin holdings upon citizenship relinquishment, paying nearly $50 million in taxes, penalties, and interest. Prosecutors subsequently applied to drop the charges. According to Odaily figures, the total amount is approximately $49.9 million, of which only about $16.86 million is tax loss recognized by the government. Because he admitted to "intentional" intent, he was subject to the highest civil fraud penalty, exceeding $12 million, plus interest. The day before the agreement was announced, the probability of Trump pardoning him on Polymarket was close to 50%, but it dropped to around 13% after the news broke. Acting federal prosecutor Bill Essayli's statement was brief: he is taking responsibility and has agreed to pay a substantial fine. What truly concerns more people is the next step. According to Cointelegraph, citing Forbes, Jarod Koopman, head of the IRS's Criminal Investigations Division, stated that the revised voluntary disclosure program is expected to launch before December, aiming to close cases within 120 days of taxpayers submitting all required documentation. The fines will be significantly lower than current ones, but no specific figures were given. Currently, a 75% penalty for civil fraud is levied on the year with the highest tax burden, typically retroactive to six years. However, according to Odaily's compilation, once a report is deemed fraudulent, there is no upper limit to the statute of limitations. Assuming you are a U.S. tax resident and have engaged in on-chain cryptocurrency exchanges, received airdrops, or staked assets without reporting it, the new regulations are like an open door; the difference between voluntarily entering and being caught could be substantial. Furthermore, US exchanges have already opened 1099-DA forms for sales starting in 2025. While DeFi exchanges and wallet transfers aren't listed on these forms, they still require self-reporting. In my opinion, the most important thing to remember about Ver's case isn't how much he paid, but the timing. He changed his passport in 2014, filed the tax return in 2016, was sued in 2024, and paid the tax in 2025—eleven years in total. According to reports, those approximately 131,000 Bitcoins back then, at today's price of around $77,000, are worth over $10 billion. This doesn't mean he still holds that much, but it's enough to show that the higher the price of cryptocurrencies, the more glaring the unpaid taxes become. Passports can be changed, but the tax ledger remains. If you also have a bunch of cryptocurrencies that you've never reported taxes on, will you proactively pay them after the new regulations are implemented, or continue to pretend it never happened? Other key points for today are shown in the image. RogerVer Crypto Tax Crypto Daily Briefing