Crypto-Taxation: Imperfect, Imposing, Imperative? – AMBCrypto

Cryptocurrencies are any digital currency with no central issuing, regulating authority, one that exists only on a decentralized ledger called blockchain. Sounds clear enough, right? Well, not quite, if you consider how differently they are treated by tax agencies around the world.

Nothing is better evidence of the global crypto-confusion than an examination of how members of the J5, the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement, view cryptocurrencies. On one hand, in the United States and Australia, cryptocurrencies are classified as property and incur capital gains taxes. On the other hand, the Netherlands considers cryptocurrencies as goods, while countries such as the U.K and Germany rule on it on a case-by-case basis.

Consider this – The member states of an international task force that aims to combat the growing threat to tax administrations posed by cryptocurrencies and cybercrime are themselves undecided on how to treat cryptocurrencies. The inability of the…