Many inexperienced investors have plunged headlong into crypto investments, in many instances with little or no record keeping nor in some cases any knowledge of the tax treatment of their investments. It would be of great assistance to taxpayers to be able to maintain a registry of their crypto investments online, with the ATO, which could potentially calculate current liabilities. Similarly, akin to the existing autofill functionality, if the ATO were able to build interfaces to extract transaction records from major crypto exchanges or crypto wallets, this would also help. Some commercial providers (e.g., https://cointracking.info ) already provide similar services, integrating through major crypto exchange API layers. Making compliance simple will both encourage it and increase total tax receipts for the ATO.
Hi GC, thanks for your post.
The ATO are currently consulting on this topic (closing Friday 20 April 2018) and we would encourage you to make a submission by visiting: https://lets-talk.ato.gov.au/PAG/news_feed/consultation-substantiating-cryptocurrency-taxation-events
Further, the latest guidance relating to the tax treatment of cryptocurrencies can be found at: https://www.ato.gov.au/general/gen/tax-treatment-of-crypto-currencies-in-australia---specifically-bitcoin/
We hope this can be of assistance.
Thanks
Tax treatment of crypto-currencies in Australia - specifically bitcoinOur current view of the income tax implications of common transactions involving cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.