ya, im sure for many it does, but it is also pretty hard to actually enforce except for like a fool who bought and sold on coinbase, then didnt pay the taxes after receiving a 1099 form reporting what they owed to the IRS.. and even then unless you are Roger Ver level of selling you are talking about owing some unpaid taxes which...with the US tax system happens all the time unless ur a w2 earner ( for example, if ur a self employed business owner you basically break 100 different IRS rules every year whether you know it or not).

It does, but I don't think most Americans anyway don't realize that you pay capital gains on foreign currency too -- there are just de minimis rules if the gains on a personal transaction are below $200.

This would probably be enough for most people to be okay with though (though of course getting rid of capital gains entirely would be nice if you ask me). The idea of needing to itemize out every coffee or ebook is just plain ridiculous. I half suspect we should all make a point of doing so as a way to DDoS the IRS, but it's probably worth being careful going down that road unless you're REALLY sure you're audit proof.