- The Danish tax authority if going after over 2,700 Danes for not declaring gains on Bitcoin trading
- The traders made use of a Finnish crypto exchange from 2015-2017 but didn’t declare tax on it
- There are plans to go after institutional investors as well
According to recent reports, Skattestyrelsen, Denmark’s tax authority, is looking to identify over 2,700 individuals they claim owe tax over cryptocurrency.
The taxes in question refer to gains made from trading bitcoin. The individuals reportedly traded bitcoin on an unnamed Finnish trading platform from between 2015-2017 but never declared this in their tax forms and thus, no taxes were paid.
Details
According to the press release, during this time period, over 2,700 Danes purchased about $7.56 million worth of Bitcoin and sold about $8.05 million worth of bitcoin. The first set of traders have already been contacted and steps are being taken to determine whether the transactions qualify as taxable income.
This will be only the first of many actions that will be taken to make sure cryptocurrency taxes are properly paid.
“This is probably just the tip of the iceberg. Although it is a relatively small bitcoin stock exchange, the information is a very valuable source, which clearly shows trends and patterns in the area. The knowledge we gain about data mining, segments, and methods, in general, will make us wiser in the area,” Karin Bergen, the Directorate of Skattestyrelsen, said.
There are plans to go after not only smaller individual traders but industrial-scale traders as well.
“There are two types of trades,” explained Ole B. Sørensen, chairman of the personal data department of SKAT. “One is what I want to call a curious trade, which is about a few thousand dollars. And then there are those who have been trading for some enormous amounts.”
Crypto and tax
Cryptocurrency taxation is becoming a more prominent issue in many countries.
For a long time, countries didn’t have any laid-down laws regarding the payment of tax from cryptocurrency trading and as such, many people took advantage and simply didn’t declare taxes on it.
This, however, seems to be changing. Spain is going after cryptocurrency tax and it seems more European countries are following suit.
While in places like the United States a definitive cryptocurrency tax code is yet to be established, it seems well on its way.