Tax Authorities In Belgium Searching Down Cryptocurrency Speculators

By Patience Loum March 6, 2018 Digital Currency No Comments

Reports from a Belgian news outlet stated that the country’s Special Tax Inspectorate has opened three cases in regards to cryptocurrency taxes, with a fourth recently closed and treated as a “non-case.”

“Belgian law stipulates that anyone speculating on cryptocurrencies must pay a 33 percent tax on profitable gains, and said gains must be declared as ‘miscellaneous income’ on tax returns – a rule which apparently imposed at the end of last year.” Cited from Bitcoin news

The news continued “At the moment, the STI – in addition to laying claim to an unfortunate acronym – is having a rough time enforcing the tax code, as most cryptocurrency trades are being made on foreign exchanges, and assets are being stored on foreign platforms.”

However, the STI is holding out on Belgians for not paying their fair share to the Western European country, and it’s just beginning. FPS Finance spokesman Francis Adyns stated “It is a world in which the Belgian tax authorities still have much to achieve.”

In order to achieve its goals, Belgium’s Special Tax Inspectorate is relying heavily on foreign cooperation. But Belgium isn’t the only country looking to benefit from citizens’ cryptocurrency profits.

“Recently, popular California-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase forked over more than 10,000 users’ information to the Internal Revenue Service. The information provided includes users’ “taxpayer ID, name, birth date, address, and historical transaction records for certain higher-transacting customers during the 2013-2015 period.”

Initially, the exchange failed to adhere with the IRS, who originally asked for information on virtually every Coinbase user.

“In December 2016, the Internal Revenue Service Issued a summons demanding that Coinbase produce a wide range of records relating to approximately 500,000 Coinbase customers. Coinbase fought this summons in court in an effort to protect its customers, and the industry as a whole, from unwarranted intrusions from the government.”