CANBERRA: Australian Tax Office will be going after cryptocurrency investors to ensure they are accurately filing their crypto gains on their taxes this year, Business Insider Australia reported Feb. 28.
The Australian Tax Office will use data matching and “100-point identification checks” to track down crypto investors, as well as bilateral tax treaties and anti-money laundering commitments to get more information out of the traditionally anonymous crypto sphere and markets.
In May 2017, the Australian government confirmed that it would treat Bitcoin “just like money,” and that it would no longer be subject to double taxation.
The end of double taxation legislation was officially passed in September 2017, meaning that the goods and services tax (GST) would no longer be applied to both the purchase of the crypto and again for its use in an exchange. The Sept. 2017 legislation also says that crypto will be treated as fiat money for GST purposes, backdating the bill to July 1, 2017.
However, in February 2018, the Australian Tax Office said that it considers cryptocurrencies as “property,” meaning that financial profits made from selling cryptocurrencies should be subject to a capital gains tax. The ATO has released a warning in late January that they will be taking “strong action” against those attempting to dodge their tax obligations.
