The Australian Tax Office has ordered crypto exchanges operating in the country to reveal personal and transaction details of over 1.2 million traders on their platform.
According to CoinDesk, the Australian regulators are trying to clamp down on users avoiding paying their tax liabilities.
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) in its bid to ensure Tax compliance by its citizens has asked Cryptocurrency exchanges in the country to reveal all personal and transaction details of over 1.2 million users in its possession.
The Australian Financial Review reported on the specific information wanted by the Australian Tax office from cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.
“As part of a surveillance effort announced in April, the ATO said its latest data collection protocol would require designated cryptocurrency exchanges to provide the names, addresses, birthdays, and transaction details of traders to help it audit compliance with obligations to pay capital gains tax on sales.” The ATO said
The Australian Tax Office added that the complex nature of cryptocurrencies can lead to a genuine lack of awareness of the tax obligations involved.
The Australian Tax Office said the required data from cryptocurrency agencies will help identify traders who failed to report their cryptocurrency trading activities including the exchange of crypto assets when they sold it for currency or used it to pay for goods and services.
The citizens do this as a measure of escaping tax thereby bypassing the Tax compliance efforts of the Australian Tax Office.
The ATO also harped on the threat of users using false information to bypass their tax obligations.
“Also, the ability to purchase crypto assets using false information may make them attractive to those seeking to avoid their tax obligations”, it said.
Australian regulators have intensified their crackdown on the Crypto industry since the collapse of FTX owned by the convicted Sam Bankman-Fried.
Australian Regulators have sued companies for attempting to sell Crypto tokens without an appropriate license. Australian Banks partner with Regulators to block payments to cryptocurrency exchanges and have often proposed a new license procedure for crypto exchanges.
Last year, the Australian Tax Office clarified that its capital gains tax on crypto products and activities also extends to wrapped tokens or token interaction with decentralized lending protocols like AAVE, Cream finance, Marker DAO, and compound.
What to know
- Nairametrics earlier reported that Nigerian authorities in its recent dispute with Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world also requested for the personal data of the platform’s top 100 users.
- Crypto assets have been gaining in popularity in Australia. A treasury report released in 2022 said more than 800,000 Australian taxpayers had transacted in digital assets in the last three years, with a 63% rise in 2021.
