09/10/19

AUSTRALIA: Cryptocurency faces $3bn Tax Fine.

As published on internationalinvestment.net, Tuesday October 8, 2019.

As Australia begins its crackdown on cryptocurrency trading, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) plans on collecting A$3 billion ($2.03bn) in fees and fines associated with taxes on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

ATO is cooperating with cryptocurrency exchanges from within and outside the country to gain access to user information to identify who is paying their taxes and who is not. Around 4% of the people in Australia have owned crypto at least once.

Deputy Commissioner, Will Day, stated that "the ATO uses third party data to improve the integrity of the tax system by identifying taxpayers who fail to disclose their income details correctly."

He continued by saying that "this data will be collected under notice from the DSPs on an ongoing basis." The ATO has every intention to keep cryptocurrency ownership and use regulated in order to support legal transactions and to enact taxation.

The agency will contact the taxpayer and give them 28 days to verify the information before any compliance action is taken.

The entire crackdown process has cost the government over A$1bn so far, however, it anticipates that the cryptocurrency fines to traders who have failed to report capital gains, to amount to over A$3bn. Depending on the severity of the crime, the traders could face up to five years of prison time.