After conducting raids on cryptocurrency mining companies, Argentina’s tax office, AFIP, is now stepping up its efforts to combat tax evasion related to cryptocurrencies.
3,997 individuals who used cryptocurrencies in 2020, according to a local report, received letters from the tax agency instructing them to change their property tax affidavits to reflect their ownership of crypto assets.
The AFIP took this action as a result of discrepancies it discovered between amounts reported as income and those generated by the selling of digital currencies.
Taxpayers who utilize digital currencies on Argentine platforms are required by the agency’s standards to report them in the Tax on Personal Assets. The authorities calculated that the defaulters’ unreported revenue was in excess of $1 billion.
Part of the notification stated:
The Income Tax covers the results derived from the disposal of digital currencies. You must proceed to externalize them in the relevant affidavits and their possession, and you must standardize your tax situation and submit the sworn statements without prejudice
Notably, the information from Argentine digital exchanges and other Payment Service Providers (PSP) that provide payment accounts based on a recently enacted act allowed AFIP to identify the Bitcoin investors.
Platforms are required by law to report a user’s activity scale when certain thresholds are reached. It applies when a person has a total annual income or expenditures of at least $30,000 or engages in virtual transactions totaling $200,000 or more.
The acts of the Tax authorities, according to several people questioned by a local news organization, are questionable. The AFIP attempts to tax cryptocurrency holdings in Personal Assets, according to Germán Nlhoul, the host of the Argentine YouTube channel Criptocontador, although no law specifically taxes them.
