Australian Tax Agency Target Crypto Traders

The Australian Tax Office(ATO) has launched a data matching program where they use third-party data related to cryptocurrency to improve the integrity of the tax system.

According to Australian Financial Review, ATO’s new program will assist them to catch crypto investors who have failed to pay taxes.

Currently, there are between 500,000 to a million crypto investors in Australia. Last time we had seen crypto users in Australia have been increasing since 2018. And some of them are not paying tax for the crypto they have invested in as per ATO.

ATO’s Data Matching Program

This program will be initiated by collecting the data and then checking the purchase of cryptocurrencies and matching it will the declaration of income tax given by crypto investors.

ATO has access to information from foreign-based cryptocurrency exchanges. Thus they will collect the data and identify the users who have not paid taxes.

The Australian tax agency sees cryptocurrencies and bitcoin as property and not a currency and thus the investors are liable for paying capital gains tax (CGT).

Paul Drum, general manager at CPA Australia is surprised to know the number of investors paying taxes and thus the program will help them to find the investors who haven’t paid taxes.

Mr. Drum also said that,

“It’s no secret that digital currencies have been used in the so-called black economy for tax evasion, and money laundering.”

The data matching program will help the taxpayers in Australia to pay the right amount of tax said Deputy Commissioner Will Day

This is not the first time ATO has targeted crypto investors. Last year ATO used 100 different points in order to track the capital gains of the crypto traders.

Are you a crypto trader from Australia? Share your thoughts about this program in the comment below.