The taxman’s endless war against personal enrichment and happiness continued unabated this Tuesday as Japanese authorities announced plans to strengthen the enforcement of their existing cryptocurrency tax.
According to local news outlet The Mainichi, the government is, starting in 2020, going to be forcing businesses that facilitate cryptocurrency transactions to reveal any suspicious deals to authorities.
At the moment, authorities can only ask such companies to voluntarily submit details to them. If the proposed law comes to fruition, it will mean companies have to hand over names, addresses, and personal identification numbers when requested to do so.
A number of restrictions will still prevent the government from grabbing client information from exchange operators. Only when tax authorities believe a client has made more than ¥10 million ($89,000) and has failed to pay more than half their tax bill, can they request personal information from a company.
Japan - Already Using a Cryptocurrency Tax
Currently, members of the great, katsu curry-loving Japanese public have to pay a capital gains tax on any cryptocurrency holdings. For those at the upper echelons of the economic spectrum, that tax can be up to 55 percent of earnings.
There are certainly a small number of people living in Japan that have made some serious dough from the cryptocurrency market. A survey carried out by the country’s National Tax Agency found 300 people who were willing to admit that they had made over ¥100 million ($890,000) in profit from buying and selling different coins.
Taxes on Cryptocurrencies have become increasingly common over the past few months, though governments are still in the process of figuring out what exactly should be taxed and how they can go about collecting cash if someone is only holding a digital asset.
One jurisdiction, the US state of Ohio, seems to have figured things. Last week local authorities announced that state taxes could be paid in Bitcoin .
