Australia’s tax authority to contact crypto traders on their tax obligations

Quick Take

  • The Australian Taxation Office is set to contact up to 350,000 individuals who have traded in crypto in recent years
  • Crypto in Australia is considered as property and is subject to capital gains tax

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the country’s revenue collection agency, is set to contact hundreds of thousands of crypto traders on their tax obligations.

“Over the next two months we expect to contact as many as 350,000 individuals who have traded in cryptocurrency in the last few years,” an ATO spokesman told news.com.au in a report published Wednesday.

Cryptocurrencies in Australia are considered as property, and therefore, are subject to capital gains tax and must be reported to the ATO.

The ATO spokesman said crypto investors should ensure they keep records of their transactions. These include dates of transactions, their value, what were those transactions for and who were other parties involved.

The spokesman further said that those who sold cryptocurrency during the 2017-18 financial year may also be contacted by the tax authority, asking them to review their return and report correct capital gains. Those who fail to review could be audited, per the report.

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“The ATO is giving you the chance to fix it, but if you choose not to, what normally happens is you will go through the formal audit process,” Mark Chapman, H&R Block’s director of tax communications, was quoted as saying in the report. “If you’ve done the wrong thing, you will have to pay the tax you should have the first time which can be pretty expensive and there might also be some interest on top of that, so the financial downsides of not doing this right are considerable.”

In a similar development last year, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also sent out notices to crypto holders, listing specific amounts of money they owe to the tax agency.


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.