What is Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrencies are digital tokens or currency which have no legislated or intrinsic value other than what people are willing to pay for them. It is also a high-risk investment option. The first cryptocurrency was created in 1990 long before the birth of Bitcoin in 2008.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether
Cryptocurrency and Income Tax
The Tax Office has an ever improving system referred to as prefill data which forms the first layer of their audit program. Right now they cannot see exactly what and how much your trades have been, just that you have owned cryptocurrency. This will change as the Tax Office systems gain capacity and become more sophisticated.
Cryptocurrency is an investment asset which is treated like any other unitised investment such as shares.
Just like shares there are 2 types of income to report:
- Income generated whilst holding the asset, referred to as staking rewards; and
- Income made on the eventual sale or transfer of the asset, referred to as the capital gain or profit on sale.
Staking Rewards
Staking is passive income generated when existing crypto assets are locked. Think of staking as a bank term deposit and the rewards are the interest received. The rewards received for staking crypto are considered ordinary income for tax purposes.
Capital Gain or Profit on Sale
A capital gain or loss is just another word for the profit or loss made. This can happen on any trades both to and from AUD as well as between currencies.
To work all of this out you will need to keep records of each trade in both units of the respective currency and the AUD equivalent. The amount you received for the sale or transfer less the amount you paid for the initial purchase. If there are trade costs incurred these are claimed against the sale.
Record Keeping
Keeping records of all of this could be quite difficult due to the nature of cryptocurrency. If you are trading regularly and have multiple wallets where your currency is managed and stored this can quickly turn into hundreds of transactions.
Whilst an excel spreadsheet can work, we find the biggest problem is rolling from one year to the next. Keeping the information that you will need next time and archiving the stuff you don't. It can get messy and will be very time-consuming.
We use and recommend Crypto Tax Calculator (link below). The subscription cost starts at $49 per year and is tax deductible as a cost of managing your tax affairs. We can set up an account for you and include it in your annual tax return fee.