331 Japanese Investors Recorded At Least $1 Million In Profit
According to leading media channels in South Korea and Japan JoongAng and Nikkei have claimed that the National Tax Agency (NTA) of Japan is up to date with the fact that 331 investors in the Japanese cryptocurrency sector made a profit of $1 million via trading, gaining over $331 million.
Reports from NTA states that towards the ending of 2017, 21.98 million in Japan confirmed taxes to the government, creating over 41.4 billion yen. The NTA disclosed that the overall taxes it generated last year increased over 3 percent from 2016, mainly as a result of the expansion in Japan’s economy.
549 out of the 21.98 million people that declared taxes to the government recorded a non-operational or non-working profit of $1 million, which is usually gathered by investments in stocks, assets, commodities, and properties. Additionally, out of the 549 people, 331 were cryptocurrency investors that profited more than a million dollars in profit in the Japanese cryptocurrency market.
The Japanese government, Financial Services Agency (FSA), and NTA revealed that local monetary authorities would levy the tax of up to 55 percent on non-operational profit obtained by investments.
However, the Japanese government did not give further details on its policy on cryptocurrency taxes and investors confirmed their doubts in the cryptocurrency market.
Blockchain technology consultant Hiroyuki Komiya stated, “The government hasn’t clarified certain details, so you’re left unsure whether you’ve got it right or not.”
In countries such as the US, tax agencies and local financial authorities had earlier on challenged companies such as Coin base to track cryptocurrency investors to gather taxes. Yet in Japan, the NTA said that all 331 investors confirmed their profits from cryptocurrency investments to the government and it still holds doubts towards the tax declaration of cryptocurrency investors.
However, the industry noted that the number is relatively too low to be real and highlighted that they believe that a larger number of investors have not confirmed their profits.
“If the rapid growth of the cryptocurrency sector in late 2017 is considered, 331 is a number that is simply too low to be true. A large portion of cryptocurrency investors probably did not declare their earnings to the government,” said one analyst.
