Crypto Assets and Australian Taxpayers

Crypto regulations remain as one of the biggest challenges for governments due to various factors.  Last year, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) published its guidance on the taxation on cryptocurrencies.

Australian authorities, as part of the campaign to raise awareness, plan to contract thousands of residents. This way, they want to give people the opportunity to fix any mistakes connected with crypto assets.

Moreover, the Australian Taxation Office expects to contact as many as 350,000 individuals who have traded cryptocurrency in the last several years.

Interestingly, they will contract owners regardless of whether or not they have sold or traded over the past financial year.

Australian authorities and crypto industry

Australian Taxation Office may even send emails or letters to taxpayers who sold crypto during the 2017-2018 financial year.

The director of tax communications at multinational tax preparation firm H&R Block Marc Chapman thinks that up to one million people have had some dealings with crypto trading.

Last year, the Australian Taxation Office coordinated its cross-border investigations with the J5.

It is worth mentioning that the J5 is an international taskforce of tax enforcement authorities. Let’s have a look at the taskforce. This taskforce includes Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

As stated above, ATO published its guidance on the taxation regarding the crypto money. Bitcoin and other crypto-assets fell under the category of taxable forms of property.

Australian authorities also published a Data Matching Protocol for cryptocurrency. Taxation Office is using this protocol to obtain transaction data from crypto exchanges on who have bought or sold cryptocurrency.

ATO found that due to the complex nature of cryptocurrencies, some people may not be aware that there may be tax obligations.

Countries in the Asia Pacific region, as well as other parts of the world, should create similar campaigns. Authorities in cooperation with crypto-related companies have the potential to make life easier for the crypto owners.