Bitcoin exchange Coinbase will have to wait a little bit more before it can have its day in court against the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
This was after U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley granted the federal government’s request to move the hearing from Feb. 16 to March 23, according to the Feb. 3 court order sent by Jeffrey Berns’ office to CalvinAyre.com.
Berns was the Coinbase customer who challenged the legitimacy of IRS’ John Doe summons on grounds that they “would constitute an abuse of process.” The lawyer and managing partner of Berns Weiss also described the IRS’s request to obtain the user records as “overboard.”
The hearing was for the “motions to intervene filed by Berns and Coinbase in their efforts to challenge the summons served by the IRS.” If you recall, the California district court allowed the tax agency to require Coinbase to submit records of its customer transactions as part of an investigation into possible tax fraud committed by U.S. residents who engaged in business with or through the bitcoin wallet service.
The IRS asked the court to delay the hearing so that it could assess whether it needs to take additional action in the case. The date change, however, was a minor victory for the tax agency since Coinbase has also asked the court to delay the hearing until March so the company will have enough time to prepare a proper response.
India’s reserve bank warns against digital currency use
Virtual currencies like bitcoin transactions are still unlicensed in India.
That was the warning from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) amid the booming popularity of cryptocurrency in the country.
The RBI issued a statement last week, telling traders that “dealing with virtual currencies will be doing so at their own risk.”
“The Reserve Bank of India advises that it has not given any license or authorization to any company to operate such schemes or deal with bitcoin or any virtual currency,” the reserve bank said.
Bitcoin’s popularity in India experienced a surge late last year after the government banned 500 and 1,000 currency notes.
Current bitcoin price
Bitcoin remains above the $1,000 mark this week, trading at $1,023 early Monday morning.
