Confused about how to pay taxes on your NFT returns? So is the IRS.
• The IRS hasn’t revealed how it plans to tax returns on NFTs, bringing confusion to collectors in the months leading up to Tax Day.
• Central to the question is whether NFTs should be taxed as collectibles or crypto. Collectibles earnings are subject to capital gains taxes of 28%, while taxes on crypto cap out at 20%.
• Fun Fact: The NFT market exploded last year, with investors pouring $44b into the sector. That’s a lot of taxable income.
A DAO bought an original copy of Dune for all the wrong reasons
• SpiceDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, shelled out $3m for an original copy of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s (failed) screenplay adaptation of Dune. They want to burn the book and create NFTs of the pages.
• The group plans to publish the book online and generate income by creating an animated series based on Jodorowsky’s screenplay, but it’s already available online for free. Nor does SpiceDAO have the rights to adapt the series.
• Fun Fact: If you’re going to buy a collectible, make sure you understand how copyright works. As one Twitter user put it, just because you bought a Spider Man comic doesn't mean you can also make Spider Man movies.
• A Surrealist work by René Magritte is estimated to fetch around $60m at Sotheby’s. It’s the first time the work has been sold at auction.
• Auction houses rarely sell big name works without guarantees (a payment to a buyer that ensures the work will sell), so there’s a near-certain chance that the work will sell for at least $60m. If that happens, it will be a new sales record for the artist — and more than double the previous record.
• Fun Fact: Somewhat lackluster Old Masters sales last year left some doubting the future of older, high-dollar auction house sales. However, the news of a blockbuster Magritte sale suggests that blockbuster sales are still fashionable.
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• This week in the Otis Discord, we’re talking about: buyout offers, auctions, and more — join the conversation.
• The Otis team has made the decision to decline the 1985 Air Jordan 1 collection buyout. Details here.
• Louis Vuitton launched the long-awaited Air Force 1 Nike sneakers designed by the late Virgil Abloh, with an auction to benefit the designer’s scholarship fund for Black fashion students. Otis has a pair of Nike Air Force 1 x Off-White “MoMA” sneakers that were designed by Virgil Abloh, as part of the Nike x Artist Collection.
• A Banksy mural on the wall of an electrical store in Suffolk, UK was torn down by the owners and sold to a private buyer in the U.S. for an undisclosed amount. Bansky’s Police Car, 2003 is trading on Otis.
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu is a sneakerhead and begged the production team to let him keep a rare pair of Georgetown Air Jordan 4s that he wore in closing scenes. They refused. Otis has a pair of Air Jordan 4 “Georgetown PE” shoes as part of the Air Jordan “Exclusives” collection.
• Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappé signed a multi-year brand deal with eyewear brand Oakley. A Kylian Mbappé Rookie Card (2018 Panini Prizm World Cup Orange Prizm #80 /65 PSA 10) is trading on Otis.
This week on Otis Magazine we go into the niche world of cult classic tech collectibles like Zunes and Dreamcasts.
Read: Cult Classic Tech: Why Collectors Still Seek Zunes and Dreamcasts
