The Australian Tax Office has allocated $1 billion to fight tax avoidance with particular emphasis on cryptocurrency trading. Not to worry - Australia Crypto Tax, an online tax calculator, takes you through the tricky terrain of calculating your cryptocurrency taxes so you can stay compliant.
Thought cryptocurrency purchases and sales are not taxable? That in any case these transactions are hidden, or at least that the government is not prosecuting yet? Think again.
The Australian government has identified that about 4% of its citizens have engaged in cryptocurrency trading and, for the 2019/2020 budget, are allocating $1 Billion AUD for the ATO to fight tax avoidance with particular emphasis on cryptocurrency trading. According to ATO representatives, "the plan is to:
- Obtain data from Australian crypto designated service providers – starting with data from the larger well-established providers, before moving on to smaller providers later in the year
- Extend the ATO’s reach to foreign digital service providers – likely from any or all of the countries that Australia currently has a data sharing arrangement with.
The data obtained from these sources, particularly digital exchanges, will be used to identify the buyers and sellers of crypto assets and quantify the related transactions.”
The government is also on record stating they expect to get $3 AUD back for every $1 AUD spent - in other words to recoup around $3 Billion AUD by fining those who have not reported their taxes properly. The ATO will act effectively, since the pressure to deliver quantifiable results is from the top level and starting with crypto traders will be the low hanging fruit for the agency.
If realizing you may be on the hook for unexpected tax liabilities isn’t enough, the downturn in the price of bitcoin in 2018 resulted in significant losses for many traders. But there is a silver lining - the good news is that although bitcoin is rebounding, you can still offset any already incurred cryptocurrency trading losses against stock market or other capital gains, such as from real estate transactions. If your overall capital losses are greater than your capital gains this year, you may even roll forward the remainder of the losses into future years.
To do this accurately, however, you must figure out the precise tax consequences of every purchase and sale transaction, which involves complicated calculations and many hours attempting to do this by hand, or even with spreadsheets. But more good news - that’s where Australia Crypto Tax comes in, so you do not have to figure out any of this yourself, and instead can use their simple and affordable online solution.
So how does Australia Crypto Tax work? Will it help with filing taxes with the ATO?
AustraliaCryptoTax.com is a secure platform to easily upload your cryptocurrency trades and download your necessary tax documents.
It’s as easy as:
1. Create an account.
2. Upload your trades.
3. Download your report.
Are you still nervous? Don’t be. Australia Crypto Tax has screen by screen tutorials for each exchange and it will walk you through every click of the way. For Australian citizens specifically, no worries about USD to AUD conversions - you may import trades from USD exchanges and download a report from the application in AUD to provide to the ATO.
Head over to AustraliaCryptoTax.com to learn more about crypto taxes in australia and write off your crypto tax losses today!
*Accountants and other corporate clients or potential partners who would like to discuss customized implementations and service are welcomed to contact us, as well as individual filers.
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